Home/Where we build/Altadena
Custom home builder in Altadena, for the houses that stood and the lots that did not.
Custom homes, additions and whole-house remodels under the San Gabriels, and, since January 2025, full rebuilds. Addition Building & Design is a family-run design-build firm with forty years as a builder in Los Angeles County.
Photograph · a Los Angeles rebuild by the firm
Altadena
A town of old houses, and now of empty lots beside them.
Altadena was always a place of craftsman bungalows, Spanish houses and ranch homes on deep lots, with the mountains at the end of every north-south street. Since the Eaton fire it is also a place where a standing house and a cleared lot sit side by side on the same block. Both need a builder who knows the County's rules, because Altadena is unincorporated and its permits run through Los Angeles County, not a city hall.
We have worked in Altadena before the fire and we are working here after it. Mike Ross holds the license, signs the contract, settles the design with our design partners, has it engineered by our structural engineers, pulls the permit and walks the site. Christine Ross runs the business and the claim paperwork alongside it. Four to five projects a year, because that is how many the family can personally be present for.
The work
Altadena, and the county around it.
A Los Angeles rebuild
A custom home rebuilt on its own lot. The same job the Eaton fire left on Altadena's streets.
Altadena kitchen
Designed on feng shui principles for a family who stayed. Our first Altadena project.
A Los Angeles custom home
Ground up, in the Mediterranean tradition Altadena's older streets share.
What an Altadena project involves
Three things every Altadena project runs through.
The County
Altadena is unincorporated, so drawings go to Los Angeles County's building and safety office, with the County fire department reviewing access and the wildfire assemblies. Since the fire the County runs a dedicated rebuild path for lots in the burn area. We file in the right shape for the right office.
The code
Altadena's foothill streets sit in a very high fire hazard severity zone. California's wildland-urban interface standard applies to a rebuild and to an addition alike: ignition-resistant assemblies, ember-resistant vents, tempered glazing, decks detailed for embers. How we build to it.
The house next door
Rebuilding on a block where neighbors are also rebuilding means shared streets, shared trades and a schedule that respects both. We plan deliveries and hours with the block in mind, and Juan, our superintendent, is on site to talk it through in person.
A family firm
The people whose name is on the firm are on your site.
You work with the family that owns the company, on site, through every phase. A builder with forty years in Los Angeles, a daughter carrying the firm forward, and one phone number: 310.617.2722.
Questions Altadena families ask us
The answers before you commit.
Both. A rebuild on a burned lot and a custom home or an addition on a house that stood run through the same team, the same engineers and the same code. The difference is the permit path, and we work both.
Los Angeles County, not the City of Los Angeles or Pasadena. The County's building and safety office reviews the drawings, and since the fire it runs a dedicated rebuild path for lots in the Eaton fire area.
A kitchen designed on feng shui principles, and rebuild work since the fire. Across the county, forty years of custom homes, hillside residences and whole-house remodels. The work.
Yes. Your architect stays the designer of record and we are the builder. If you do not have one, we bring our own design partners into the first conversation. How we build.
We walk the lot or the house first, then build a line-item, fixed scope, tell you when that price locks, and put every change in writing before it happens.
Elsewhere in the valley and the east
Private Consultation
Begin with a conversation.
We take on a select number of significant projects each year. If you are considering a custom estate, a hillside build, or a full transformation, we would be glad to walk the property with you.