Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
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__Description__
In January 2025, a wind‑driven wildfire tore through Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades, destroying more than 1,200 buildings and racking up an estimated $250 billion in damage. Yet one newly built home—surrounded by ashes and charred foundations—stood almost untouched. How did it survive when its century‑old neighbors didn’t?
__Special Thanks__
- Evan Montgomery — co-producer
- SOM — filming location (www.som.com)
__Key Points__
- Why Pacific Palisades is a textbook wildland‑urban interface (WUI) and how its street grid, vegetation, and topography turned into fuel.
- The architect’s radical design moves: 30‑foot defensible space, board‑formed concrete fences, no eaves, Class‑A roof, sealed vents, and an almost airtight envelope.
- Trade‑offs no one talks about—historic charm lost, windows that stay shut, yards that trade grass for gravel.
- California’s Chapter 7A wildfire code (2008‑) vs. older houses, plus the zoning loopholes and “like‑for‑like” rebuilding rules that keep entire districts vulnerable.
- What other fire‑prone regions (Ventura County, post‑2019 Australia) are doing to blend resilience with neighborhood character—wider streets, strategic landscaping, buried utilities.
- The big question: Should we rebuild exactly as before, retrofit piecemeal, or rethink entire communities when the next blaze is only a matter of time?
__Membership__
Join this channel to get access to perks:
youtube.com/channel/UCYAm24PkejQR2xMgJgn7xwg/join
__About the Channel__
Architecture with Stewart is a YouTube journey exploring architecture’s deep and enduring stories in all their bewildering glory. Weekly videos and occasional live events breakdown a wide range of topics related to the built environment in order to increase their general understanding and advocate their importance in shaping the world we inhabit.
__About Me__
Stewart Hicks is an architectural design educator that leads studios and lecture courses as an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also serves as an Associate Dean in the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts and is the co-founder of the practice Design With Company. His work has earned awards such as the Architecture Record Design Vanguard Award or the Young Architect’s Forum Award and has been featured in exhibitions such as the Chicago Architecture Biennial and Design Miami, as well as at the V&A Museum and Tate Modern in London. His writings can be found in the co-authored book Misguided Tactics for Propriety Calibration, published with the Graham Foundation, as well as essays in MONU magazine, the AIA Journal Manifest, Log, bracket, and the guest-edited issue of MAS Context on the topic of character architecture.
__Contact__
FOLLOW me on instagram: @stewart_hicks & @designwithco
Design With Company: designwith.co
University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture: https://arch.uic.edu/
__Attributions__
Stock video and imagery provided by Getty Images, Storyblocks, and Shutterstock.
Music provided by Epidemic Sound and includes music from Chromatic by Tom Fox
youtube.com/@tomfoxcatalog"
#architecture #urbandesign
Watch my next video right now! nebula.tv/videos/stewarthicks-buildings-changed-when-blueprints-were-invented
Get Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: go.nebula.tv/stewarthicks
__Description__
In January 2025, a wind‑driven wildfire tore through Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades, destroying more than 1,200 buildings and racking up an estimated $250 billion in damage. Yet one newly built home—surrounded by ashes and charred foundations—stood almost untouched. How did it survive when its century‑old neighbors didn’t?
__Special Thanks__
- Evan Montgomery — co-producer
- SOM — filming location (www.som.com)
__Key Points__
- Why Pacific Palisades is a textbook wildland‑urban interface (WUI) and how its street grid, vegetation, and topography turned into fuel.
- The architect’s radical design moves: 30‑foot defensible space, board‑formed concrete fences, no eaves, Class‑A roof, sealed vents, and an almost airtight envelope.
- Trade‑offs no one talks about—historic charm lost, windows that stay shut, yards that trade grass for gravel.
- California’s Chapter 7A wildfire code (2008‑) vs. older houses, plus the zoning loopholes and “like‑for‑like” rebuilding rules that keep entire districts vulnerable.
- What other fire‑prone regions (Ventura County, post‑2019 Australia) are doing to blend resilience with neighborhood character—wider streets, strategic landscaping, buried utilities.
- The big question: Should we rebuild exactly as before, retrofit piecemeal, or rethink entire communities when the next blaze is only a matter of time?
__Membership__
Join this channel to get access to perks:
youtube.com/channel/UCYAm24PkejQR2xMgJgn7xwg/join
__About the Channel__
Architecture with Stewart is a YouTube journey exploring architecture’s deep and enduring stories in all their bewildering glory. Weekly videos and occasional live events breakdown a wide range of topics related to the built environment in order to increase their general understanding and advocate their importance in shaping the world we inhabit.
__About Me__
Stewart Hicks is an architectural design educator that leads studios and lecture courses as an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also serves as an Associate Dean in the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts and is the co-founder of the practice Design With Company. His work has earned awards such as the Architecture Record Design Vanguard Award or the Young Architect’s Forum Award and has been featured in exhibitions such as the Chicago Architecture Biennial and Design Miami, as well as at the V&A Museum and Tate Modern in London. His writings can be found in the co-authored book Misguided Tactics for Propriety Calibration, published with the Graham Foundation, as well as essays in MONU magazine, the AIA Journal Manifest, Log, bracket, and the guest-edited issue of MAS Context on the topic of character architecture.
__Contact__
FOLLOW me on instagram: @stewart_hicks & @designwithco
Design With Company: designwith.co
University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture: https://arch.uic.edu/
__Attributions__
Stock video and imagery provided by Getty Images, Storyblocks, and Shutterstock.
Music provided by Epidemic Sound and includes music from Chromatic by Tom Fox
youtube.com/@tomfoxcatalog"
#architecture #urbandesign
![The Most Endangered Building in Chicago [Thompson Center by Helmut Jahn]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cxXHKNHKZ2s/mqdefault.jpg "The Most Endangered Building in Chicago [Thompson Center by Helmut Jahn]
In this video, we visit Chicagos most endangered building the Thompson Center by Helmut Jahn and discuss issues related to its preservation and impending demolition.
(Can you spot the awesome typo mid video?)
Perhaps no building in Chicago is closer to a date with the wrecking ball than the Thompson Center by the architect Helmut Jahn. While those responsible for initiating this threat cite years worth of deferred maintenance and high costs of operation as the primary reasons for their decision, these are not the real reasons for the building’s demise. It suffers from a much more lethal ailment — treating it like a normal building. In this video, Stewart explains why the Thompson Center is definitely not a normal building and offers alternative ways to evaluate it. What if we considered it to be a piece of urban infrastructure or public plaza instead? Relating the building to Rem Koolhaas’ theory of ‘Bigness’, this video builds the case that the Thompson Center should be valued for how it brings people together in space rather than its colors, or material palette, or any other normal ways of evaluating mere buildings.
3D Model Team from UIC School of Architecture: John Gritsonis, Ricardo Sandoval, Aaron Cortez, Andrew Sterniuk, Brandon Hogan, Eugenia Dittmar, Juan Reyes, Katherine Denemark, Lindsey Louisma, Masumi Thakkar, Eric Nunez, Julian Gonzalez
Explore the Space on your Device: https://api2.enscape3d.com/v1/view/bb6593b2-7fb1-41cd-82ef-89f663a4472d
Download Rhino 3D File: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B6sIzAemxjq1MdxnyURZd2SlifMsVp1T/view?usp=sharing
FOLLOW me on instagram: @stewart_hicks & @designwithco
Design With Company: https://designwith.co
University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture: https://arch.uic.edu/")
![Inside a Bizarre LOST House for Josephine Baker [by Adolf Loos]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/f70UfPWo4eA/mqdefault.jpg "Inside a Bizarre LOST House for Josephine Baker [by Adolf Loos]
The unbuilt design of a home for Josephine Baker by the architect Adolf Loos is perhaps one of the most analyzed unbuilt homes of Modernism. Its design and history touch on a number of complex social and political issues during the early 20th century. The design comes when Josephine Baker, an African American entertainer is beginning her rise to superstardom and represents a thoroughly modern and fresh artistic voice. Meanwhile, Adolf Loos was a physically ailing man on a steep moral and social decline. The house itself was never truly commissioned by Baker, rather it lives mostly as a fantasy concocted by the architect. This video presents the house through a 3D model and narrated walkthrough to discuss how and why the house was designed and allow you to explore this unique house for yourself.
Link to explore the Josephine Baker House
https://api2.enscape3d.com/v1/view/8050d35a-a5d6-4fa8-9dd4-94c83601e341
Membership
Join this channel for access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYAm24PkejQR2xMgJgn7xwg/join
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:30 Timeline
04:06 Analysis
07:08 3D Modeling
08:03 Exploration
10:38 Takeaways
About the Channel
Architecture with Stewart is a YouTube journey exploring architecture’s deep and enduring stories in all their bewildering glory. Weekly videos and occasional live events breakdown a wide range of topics related to the built environment in order to increase their general understanding and advocate their importance in shaping the world we inhabit.
About Me
Stewart Hicks is an architectural design educator that leads studios and lecture courses as an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also serves as an Associate Dean in the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts and is the co-founder of the practice Design With Company. His work has earned awards such as the Architecture Record Design Vanguard Award or the Young Architect’s Forum Award and has been featured in exhibitions such as the Chicago Architecture Biennial and Design Miami, as well as at the V&A Museum and Tate Modern in London. His writings can be found in the co-authored book Misguided Tactics for Propriety Calibration, published with the Graham Foundation, as well as essays in MONU magazine, the AIA Journal Manifest, Log, bracket, and the guest-edited issue of MAS Context on the topic of character architecture.")
![Explore Toyo Itos LOST Masterpiece [U House]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hk_zVp9jf1E/mqdefault.jpg "Explore Toyo Itos LOST Masterpiece [U House]
What if you could visit some of architectures most famous but unbuilt or demolished structures?
The U House is widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of Pritzker Prize winning architect Toyo Ito. It was designed specifically to nurture his sister and two daughters after they lost their father to cancer. Decades later, the house sat empty once the family had eventually moved on from the grips of their grief. In 1997, the house was demolished to clear the site for sale and today the building only lives on in memory, drawing, and images. In this episode of Architecture with Stewart, he reconstructs the U House to simulate what it would have been like to visit in real life. After a forensic investigation and a close analysis of its program and geometry, he builds a 3D model and navigates it in the real-time render engine Enscape and offers a link for you to explore as well. What hidden treasures are lurking inside this important building lost to the wrecking ball?
Link to explore the U House: https://api2.enscape3d.com/v1/view/788c9f78-98ef-4c12-bf20-807517a585ff
Chapters
00:00 Intro
01:07 The Timeline
02:34 Background of the U House
03:50 Analyzing the U House
07:27 Rebuilding the U House
08:32 Exploring the U House
10:45 The Takeaways
Architecture with Stewart is a YouTube journey exploring architecture’s deep and enduring stories in all their bewildering glory. Weekly videos and occasional live events breakdown a wide range of topics related to the built environment in order to increase their general understanding and advocate their importance in shaping the world we inhabit.
Stewart Hicks is an architectural design educator that leads studios and lecture courses as an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also serves as an Associate Dean in the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts and is the co-founder of the practice Design With Company. His work has earned awards such as the Architecture Record Design Vanguard Award or the Young Architect’s Forum Award and has been featured in exhibitions such as the Chicago Architecture Biennial and Design Miami, as well as at the V&A Museum and Tate Modern in London. His writings can be found in the co-authored book Misguided Tactics for Propriety Calibration, published with the Graham Foundation, as well as essays in MONU magazine, the AIA Journal Manifest, Log, bracket, and the guest-edited issue of MAS Context on the topic of character architecture.
FOLLOW me on instagram: @stewart_hicks & @designwithco
Design With Company: https://designwith.co
University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture: https://arch.uic.edu/")
