TOURS

Palisades Fire Memorial - Pacific Palisades, CA

SUMMER 2026 ONLY

 

 

The Palisades Fire Memorial Tour offers an intimate guided visit to the Chimney Yard, where six historic chimneys — salvaged from homes designed by architects Richard Neutra, Eric Lloyd Wright, and Ray Kappe lost in the January 2025 Palisades Fire — are being preserved in preparation for installation as a public memorial in Pacific Palisades, California.

 

This is a working preservation site, and access is limited to small, reserved groups.

 

Reservation: by appointment only

Contribution: $250 per guest minimum

(additional contributions welcomed, and go directly toward completing the memorial)

Group size: max capacity 12 guests 

Address: Shared on reservation

 

What you'll experience

Led by artist and House Museum founding director Evan Curtis Charles Hall, each private visit brings guests into direct contact with the in-process memorial and the stories embedded in every brick. Through architectural recollection, oral storytelling, and firsthand engagement with the salvaged structures, guests encounter the Palisades Fire Memorial not as a finished monument, but as a living act of preservation—unfolding in real time, in the place where it matters most. Together, the chimneys represent over one hundred years of Southern California architectural history and the community's determination to rebuild.

 

Topics covered

• The Palisades and Malibu families who owned homes that the chimneys once anchored, drawn from oral histories collected in the weeks after the fire.

• Architectural history — including the mid-century modern legacies of Richard Neutra, Eric Lloyd Wright, and Ray Kappe, founder of SCI-Arc.

• The salvage effort itself — the emergency documentation of 55+ surviving chimneys, the selection of six for preservation, and the race against demolition crews that defined House Museum's early response

• The conservation action plan created by Getty Conservation Institute — firsthand contact with fire-damaged masonry that requires stabilization against sensitive environmental conditions of Pacific Palisades.

• Youth engagement from Palisades Charter High Schools students through our Site-Based Art Learning program

 

Your contribution funds real, itemized work: structural stabilization, transportation and installation of six irreplaceable chimneys, and continued community engagement. Every dollar advances our capital campaign to complete the Palisades Fire Memorial, already endorsed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Pacific Palisades Community Council, Los Angeles Conservancy, and Getty Conservation Institute.

Reserve your visit above, through Calendly

 

The Chimney Yard is not ADA accessible. Hat and closed-toe shoes are advised for unpaved, uneven ground. Please contact us if you have questions or unique requirements: Email us.

 

Palisades Fire survivors: These are your chimneys, and we want you to be able to visit them. If you lost your home in the Palisades Fire and would like to see the Chimney Yard, please reach out to us directly — we're glad to discuss accommodations.

 

House Museum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. All contributions are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.