OREM, Utah — Students at Utah Valley University just returned from a special trip they took over their spring break that allowed them to put the skills they've learned in the classroom to the test, helping many who lost their historic homes in the recent Los Angeles wildfires.
"They were beautiful," Summer Wilde, who is studying classical architecture at UVU, said of the homes that were destroyed in Altadena, California, "A lot of people let us into their homes so we could see the charm and beauty that comes with these styles and really help us better understand what the homes looked like in Altadena and how we can recreate them."
When asked about the rubble and what it was like to see what was left standing, Wilde likened it to tombstones: "kind of eery."
Her fellow student Jared Poulter agreed.
"It felt like a graveyard is kind of a way to describe it," he said. "They’re mostly homes called James Cottages so they’re mostly stucco and brick and these brick chimneys were the only things that were left. Just forever and ever and ever there were these charred chimneys."
He said he wasn't prepared for the emotion he experienced being there in person and seeing how truly little was left behind.
"It makes architecture real for me."
Paul Monson is their professor, teaching architecture at UVU in Orem. He said he and his colleagues saw the need for documentation after the devastating fires took so much of our American history — so they creating something called the California Bungalow Recovery Project.
"They’re these Arts and Crafts or period revival houses — very eclectic neighborhood, and nobody wants to see it rebuild in a bland way or cookie cutter way," Monson said. "They would love to preserve that character and charm that neighborhood had… our students are trained in that and they were able to document what was lost."
It's a free service they provided to the fire victims.
"We documented, measured and interviewed, videoed and photographed the remains, the foundations and the sites of their homes," Monson said, "And then our goal is to help them create a set of documents or blueprints of the house that was lost — either as a historical record or in order for some cases for them to rebuild their home."
The timing had to line up just right for them to get in there to do their work.
"With the fire cleanup, everything has to line up at the right time. There are different phases to meet," student Brad Koford said. "We couldn’t be there until they cleaned up the hazardous materials but once they clear out the foundations we couldn’t do our documentation so it had to perfectly line up with our spring break so our professors said how many of you would want to go — and once we had 20 of us, we went. To put our boots on the ground and measure these old homes and see how they were built and see the differences in how we build and design homes now it was really cool."
He agreed with others who said they just don't build them like they used to.
"Everything is like plastic or drywall or very synthetic, but a lot of these homes were made with real stone, real wood, real stone. And they had this real permanence to them and it’s so sad a lot of the homes that we documented were just away from their 100-year mark," Poulter remarked.
It's an experience the students and their teacher say they'll never forget.
"I think it’s a matter of respect and gratitude," Monson said, "It was really special in Altadena."
Wilde added: "I would love to do residential architecture. I feel homes are so important. There’s just so much meaning in every single detail. Everything serves a function, but it’s also beautiful."
Poulter said: "The experience for me — it made me even more passionate about architecture. It made me excited and gave me a glimpse into what I can do to help people."
"As we preserve the buildings that we’re in," Koford added, "you know, we preserve a piece of the history of ourselves."
If you'd like to help or learn more about the effort by UVU and their students, they would love to connect. You can contact them at bungalowrecovery.net or by email at bungalowrecoveryuvu@outlook.com.
