New program uses locally made bricks to aid reconstruction and help fund planned Palisades Fire Memorial
A year after fires tore through Palisades to Malibu, a local preservation nonprofit is turning to one of the oldest building materials on earth to support recovery.
House Museum, a Los Angeles–based historic preservation group, has begun taking pre-orders for “Rebuild Bricks,” red clay bricks manufactured in Southern California and sold both as construction materials and as symbolic keepsakes tied to the region’s rebuilding effort. The bricks go on full release Jan. 7.
Proceeds from the sales will help fund the Palisades Fire Memorial — an installation of seven surviving chimneys saved from homes destroyed in the fire — while also contributing to House Museum’s broader preservation work.
House Museum officials say the bricks are intended to promote more durable masonry in future rebuilding while giving residents a way to directly support recovery efforts.
The nonprofit has preserved six fire-damaged chimneys from homes designed by Richard Neutra, Ray Kappe and Eric Lloyd Wright, along with others built with historic Higgins Bricks or linked to early Hollywood foothill estates. Those structures — left standing after homes burned around them — became the basis for the memorial now planned for the Santa Monica Mountains.
“I love how the brick is so symbolically charged, and yet it’s just … a brick,” fire survivor and chimney donor Kraig Hill said in written comments.
The bricks, made with low-carbon manufacturing processes by Pacific Clay, are rated for severe weather and can be used in exterior walls, walkways and hardscaping. They are available individually or by the pallet in three regional editions — Pacific Palisades, Altadena and Malibu.
Single bricks range from $55 to $550 depending on tier, and a pallet of 450 bricks is priced at $1,125. Pre-orders opened Dec. 1 on the House Museum website.