Home/Where we build/Pasadena fire rebuild contractor
Rebuilding in Pasadena after the Eaton fire, with a builder already rebuilding next door.
Burned lots, like-for-like rebuilds and new designs on old ground. Addition Building & Design is a family-run design-build firm with forty years as a builder in Los Angeles County, ten fire rebuilds under way from the Palisades to Altadena, and the first in Pasadena starting.
Photograph · hillside homes from the air
After the Eaton fire
The lot is yours. The lot has changed.
In January 2025 the Eaton fire came down out of the San Gabriels, took thousands of Altadena homes and crossed into Pasadena's northeast: the streets above Eaton Canyon and the neighborhoods below the mesa. The debris has been cleared, and what is left is a lot that is not quite the lot you owned: heat alters soils, the cleanup took out foundations and moved earth, utilities were cut at the street. Before anyone talks about kitchens, someone has to establish what you actually own now. A current survey, a soils report, and a plain read of what the fire did to the ground. That is where we start, and it is the step that rebuilds which stall usually skipped.
From there it is the work we do everywhere: 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 your claim paperwork alongside it. You deal with the two of us, not a rotation of project managers.
Three ways a Pasadena lot comes to us
Where you are decides the path, not the standard.
A cleared lot, no plans yet
You own the ground and the insurance file. We survey the lot, order the soils work, read your policy with you, and design a home that fits the rebuild path where it can. One team from the first sketch to the keys.
The house you had, brought back
Pasadena's ranch houses and the custom homes on the mesa can come back as what they were, detailed for embers. Rebuilds that substantially match the original, with a modest allowance for added size, move through review faster than a new design. We keep you inside that envelope where the design allows and tell you plainly when a wish steps out of it.
Plans in hand, builder needed
Your architect has a set at plan check or already approved. We review it for cost and buildability before you commit, price it line by line, pull the permit as contractor of record, and build it.
Rebuilding is what we are doing now
Ten fire rebuilds across the county, one family on all of them.
Pasadena is the newest of the fire areas we are working in. Two Altadena rebuilds are under way a few minutes away, five in the Palisades, two in Malibu and one in Brentwood. Street names for now; house numbers on the owners' say-so.
- Valleylights Drive, PasadenaStarting
- Altadena, two homesUnder way
- Pacific Palisades, five homesUnder construction
- Malibu, two homesUnder way
- Bundy Drive, BrentwoodUnder construction
Permits, code and the claim
The three things a Pasadena rebuild has to get right early.
The City's path, or the County's
A Pasadena address does not settle which office holds your permit. Inside the city limits it is the City of Pasadena: the building division for the drawings, the fire department for access and the wildfire assemblies, design review where the neighborhood asks for it. On the unincorporated mesa above the city, where many of the Eaton fire lots sit, it is Los Angeles County and the County's dedicated rebuild path. We tell you which before a line is drawn, file in the right shape for the right office, and answer corrections the same week.
The wildfire code
Every rebuild in the foothills is detailed to California's wildland-urban interface standard: ignition-resistant assemblies, ember-resistant vents, tempered glazing, decks and porches built for embers. City or County, fast path or standard path, the code is the same, and it is the reason the next house stands. How we build to it.
The insurance scope
Your settlement was written against the house you lost, not the one the code now requires. We separate the code-required upgrades in the scope so your ordinance-and-law coverage can be claimed, and we give your adjuster a line-item document to work from, not a lump sum.
A family firm
The people whose name is on the firm are on your site.
Four to five new projects a year is the only way a family can stay personally involved in every build. A builder with forty years in Los Angeles, a daughter carrying the firm forward, and one phone number: 310.617.2722.
Questions Pasadena families ask us
Before you sign anything.
With the ground. A current survey and a soils report tell us what the fire and the debris removal changed, and they decide the foundation before any drawing is worth paying for. We arrange both, then sit down with you and your policy.
It depends on which side of the city line your lot sits. Inside the city limits, the City of Pasadena's building division reviews the drawings, with the fire department reviewing the wildfire assemblies and access. On the unincorporated mesa above the city, where many Eaton fire lots with Pasadena addresses sit, Los Angeles County holds the permit and runs its own rebuild path. We tell you which office it is before a line is drawn.
Both the City and the County favor rebuilds that substantially match what stood before, with a modest allowance for added size. Stay inside that envelope and review is faster. Step outside it and you enter the standard process. We tell you the cost in time before you decide.
Yes. We build a line-item scope your adjuster can work from, separate the code-required upgrades so your ordinance-and-law coverage can be claimed, and stay involved through the claim.
Yes. The wildfire code governs the assemblies, not the style. Deep eaves get enclosed and vented for embers, siding and roofing become ignition-resistant versions of what was there, and the decks and porches are detailed for embers. It reads as the house you had.
Our first Pasadena rebuild, on Valleylights Drive, is starting now, and ten fire rebuilds are under way with us across the Palisades, Malibu, Altadena and Brentwood, two of them in Altadena a few minutes away. We take on four to five new projects a year on purpose, so the family stays on every site.
Elsewhere after the fires
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.