In Altadena, attempting to rebuild for resilience

Summary

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Marketplace Morning Report

Episode: "In Altadena, Attempting to Rebuild for Resilience"

Date: January 9, 2026
Host: David Brancaccio

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the innovations and challenges facing homeowners in Altadena, California, as they attempt to rebuild their homes after devastating urban wildfires. David Brancaccio draws on his own experience of losing a home in the fire, exploring whether emerging construction technologies, particularly cross-laminated timber (CLT), can offer more resilient and climate-friendly solutions for the future of single-family housing. The episode highlights not only the technical aspects and potential benefits of CLT but also the financial and practical barriers to adopting such innovations on a larger scale.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Why Rebuild the Old Way?

• David Brancaccio raises the central question:

  “Why do we build homes after 21st century fires like it’s the 19th century?” (00:01)

• After a year since the firestorms in Los Angeles, a critical concern is whether insurance is even obtainable for rebuilt homes and how new building methods could help.

2. Traditional vs. Innovative Construction

• Analogy Used:
  • Rebuilding a home is likened to reassembling a car from scratch, buying all the parts and hiring someone to put it together in your driveway (00:29).
• Daniel Lopez Perez (University of San Diego):

  “You’re back in the 19th century. You’re building one 2x4 at a time.” (00:48)

3. The Promise of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT)

• Daniel Lopez Perez describes CLT, a high-tech wooden panel system, as a potential game-changer for speeding up housing construction (00:57).

  “Our mission is to accelerate the production of housing, bringing technologies that are revolutionizing much larger buildings down to that individual house scale.” (00:57)

• Practical example:
  • A small house in San Diego was framed in 2.5 days by a three-person crew using CLT panels (01:09).

  “We optimize labor right where small general contractors building individual standalone houses are able to just build more units.” (01:31)

• Potential fivefold increase in speed for enclosing homes compared to traditional methods—critical after disaster recovery (01:40).

4. CLT Production Explained

• Matt Kramer (Mercer Mass Timber, Spokane):

  “We’ve planed all the wood. We’ve sorted it. We’re now ready to make it into a panel.” (01:59 - 02:08)

• Tour of the factory floor:
  • Thin boards of spruce are pressed and glued into large “wood sandwiches.” (02:11)
  • Panels are customized (door/window cutouts) and ready for crane installation on site, saving up to 20% on construction schedules (02:40).

  “We’re doing a lot of the front-end work off site in our manufacturing facility...” (02:40)

5. Fire Resilience and Sustainability

• After seeing his own property reduced to ash, Brancaccio asks if using CLT is wise. Lopez Perez’s counterpoint:

  “It’s like trying to burn a phone book.” (03:09) “It has this extraordinary resilience.” (03:15)

  • CLT is difficult to ignite and maintains structural integrity even after being charred (03:18).

6. Real-World Examples: CLT Homes

• Susan Jones (Atelier Jones, Seattle):
  • Built one of America’s first CLT homes for herself in 2014 (03:50).

  “This room...is made out of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 panels.” (03:50)

  • Designed a 126-unit CLT apartment building to house people sustainably and with reduced carbon footprint (04:22).

  “We’re talking about a replacement for our 19th century extraction economy...into a 21st century high tech wood material that can still provide the beautiful biophilic experience of living with wood.” (04:34)

7. Environmental and Economic Upsides

• CLT can be derived from sustainably farmed or small-diameter trees, helping manage forests and prevent wildfires, while also offering potential economic revitalization for rural areas (04:53).

8. The Barriers: Cost and Expertise

• Homeowner’s Reality (Brancaccio):

  “The vibe from some builders has been why can’t you just do it the old fashioned way? The panels themselves are nearly twice as expensive as two by fours in plywood.” (05:21)

  • While labor and drywall savings might offset costs, the upfront price remains a barrier for many (05:34).
• Their budget is “Volvo or Lexus level...but we don’t have Maserati level money.” (05:42)
• Ongoing commitment to building a resilient, affordable, single-story house despite challenges (05:58).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• David Brancaccio (00:01):

  “Why do we build homes after 21st century fires like it’s the 19th century?”

• Daniel Lopez Perez (00:48):

  “You’re back in the 19th century. You’re building one 2x4 at a time.”

• Daniel Lopez Perez (03:09):

  “It’s like trying to burn a phone book.”

• Susan Jones (04:34):

  “We’re talking about a replacement for our 19th century extraction economy from the forests into a 21st century high tech wood material that can still provide the beautiful biophilic experience of living with wood.”

• Homeowner (Brancaccio) (05:42):

  “We have pulled together a Volvo or Lexus level rebuilding budget, but we don’t have Maserati level money.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:01–00:25 – Framing the question: Why rebuild with old methods after modern wildfires?
• 00:29–01:09 – Analogy: Homebuilding vs. Car assembly; Introduction to CLT.
• 01:09–01:40 – Speed and labor advantages of CLT.
• 01:59–02:40 – Inside a CLT factory: Panel creation and efficiency explained.
• 03:09–03:18 – Fire-resilience of CLT compared to traditional wood.
• 03:50–04:34 – Seattle’s CLT homes: Beauty and sustainability.
• 04:53–05:18 – Forest management, environmental, and economic benefits of CLT.
• 05:21–05:58 – Financial and expertise barriers to innovation for homeowners.

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Takeaway

This episode of Marketplace Morning Report lays bare the challenges and complexities of rebuilding after climate-fueled disasters. CLT emerges as a promising, resilient, and eco-friendly technology for single-family housing—but the transition to such methods remains hindered by higher costs, limited experience, and stubborn traditions. Through the lens of personal loss and community recovery, the podcast underscores both the hope and hurdles of 21st-century homebuilding.

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Transcript

[David Brancaccio]

Why do we build homes after 21st century fires like it's the 19th century? I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles. One year since the urban firestorms here, an emerging question is, can rebuilt homes get insurance? Building and landscaping to keep fire out should help. We lost our house in Altadena, but we're finding building in new ways isn't easy.

[Unknown Speaker 1]

A car must have a strong foundation.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Imagine if replacing your car lost to disaster meant ordering parts from Chevy or autozone.

[Unknown Speaker 1]

And in an automobile, the foundation is the frame.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Then hiring a contractor to assemble the new car in your driveway. That's how we build single family houses in America.

[Daniel Lopez Perez]

You're back in the 19th century. You're building one 2x4 at a time.

[Narrator/Reporter]

University of San Diego architecture professor Daniel Lopez Perez.

[Daniel Lopez Perez]

Our mission is to accelerate the production of housing, bringing technologies that are revolutionizing much larger buildings down to that individual house scale.

[Narrator/Reporter]

One technology is called cross laminated timber, or clt. Thick wooden panels the size of garage doors that screw together quickly for walls, ceilings and floors. Lopez Perez built a small house in San Diego from panels customized at a CLT factory. Pauly house was framed up by a crew of three in just two and a half days.

[Daniel Lopez Perez]

We optimize labor right where small general contractors building individual standalone houses are able to just build more units.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Building more faster is a big deal after a disaster like those fires a year ago. It also addresses the housing affordability crisis if, as Lopez Perez calculates, with these panels, you could get maybe five single family houses enclosed with the same labor and speed. 1.

[Matt Kramer]

So we've planed all the wood, We've sorted it.

[Narrator/Reporter]

General manager Matt Kramer on the factory floor at Mercer Mass Timber in Spokane, Washington.

[Matt Kramer]

We're now ready to make it into a panel.

[Narrator/Reporter]

I see clusters of thin boards of spruce ready to be pressed together, then glued into a wood sandwich.

[Matt Kramer]

Over here, what you'd see is 28, 60 foot boards underneath that vacuum gantry.

[Narrator/Reporter]

It makes chunky panels as thick as your arm or maybe your thigh, depending.

[Homeowner in Altadena]

On the strength needed.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Mercer customizes grinding out rectangles for windows, doors, whatever. Right there. Mercer's Nate Foster.

[Nate Foster]

We're doing a lot of the front end work off site in our manufacturing facility so that when this product shows up on site, it's picked up with a crane, dropped into the correct location, and we're able to continue moving. We're sometimes seeing, you know, 15, 20% savings on schedules, but after that firestorm.

[Narrator/Reporter]

A year ago, not one iota of wood was left at my ash pit of a property in Altadena. Me using wooden CLT to rebuild. Not crazy, says the San Diego professor.

[Daniel Lopez Perez]

It's like trying to burn a phone book.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Think about it, you use twigs as kindling, not a stump.

[Daniel Lopez Perez]

It has this extraordinary resilience.

[Narrator/Reporter]

The first one is I'm holding a chunk of CLT blasted with flame cannon at a government test lab. Some charred away, but most stayed structurally intact. More in a moment.

[Susan Jones]

This room, small room, is made out of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 panels.

[Narrator/Reporter]

In 2014, Seattle architect Susan Jones, founder of Atelier Jones, designed and built one of the first single family CLT homes in America for herself. Inside I see exposed wood, wood and wood, minimal drywall and we left that.

[Susan Jones]

Open for that clerestory window. So you've got eight panels and then we're making a very small triangular room.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Small and big. Jones also designed a 126 unit CLT apartment building recently opened in Seattle to get people housed using way less carbon intensive concrete.

[Susan Jones]

We're talking about a replacement for our 19th century extraction economy from the forests into a 21st century high tech wood material that can still provide the beautiful biophilic experience of living with wood.

[Narrator/Reporter]

CLT can be made from sustainably farmed lumber or from smaller trees taken out of forests so that bigger trees can thrive and to keep forests from catching fire. If this tech catches on, it could bring more jobs to downtrodden rural economies. From forest to sawmill so why one.

[Homeowner in Altadena]

Year after the fire am I speaking from my still empty lot in Altadena?

[Narrator/Reporter]

The answer is about money and expertise.

[Homeowner in Altadena]

The vibe from some builders has been why can't you just do it the old fashioned way? The panels themselves are nearly twice as expensive as two by fours in plywood.

[Narrator/Reporter]

You're supposed to be able to make.

[Homeowner in Altadena]

That up by deleting the usual cost.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Of the labor for old school framing and the drywalling.

[Homeowner in Altadena]

We have pulled together a Volvo or Lexus level rebuilding budget, but we don't have Maserati level money. Our plan is to keep trying to build a fire hardy single story house at a price that makes long term economic sense.

[David Brancaccio]

I do a video tour with teachable moments from my burned street Instagram marketplace. APM President Trump yesterday called for the government to buy $200 billion worth of mortgage bonds to help slightly ease home loan rate. There's plenty of money in mortgage agencies. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. No timeline yet. Alex Schroeder produced our series this week on the California Fires One year later with Arianna Rosas, Ashley Rodriguez and Emma Condon Video Emily McCune with Dylan Miettinen on Digital engineer is Drew Jostad. The executive producer is Nancy Fargali. In Los Angeles, I'm David Brancaccio. It's the Marketplace Morning Report, Foreign.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Public media.

[Rima Reis]

Hey everyone. You already listened to Marketplace podcasts, so you know that it's important to understand how economic forces shape our lives. And that feels especially important now as we're all trying to make sense of the latest headlines. I'm Rima Reis, host of Marketplaces. This is Uncomfortable, a show that explores how money bumps up against our relationships, our choices in the parts of life we don't always say aloud. And starting January 15th, we are back every single week. New stories, new questions, and the kind of conversations that make you feel less alone in this quickly changing economy. We're tackling questions like should I turn my hobby into a money making side hustle? How do I deal with layoff anxiety? Or what do we owe our parents financially? Don't miss an episode. Subscribe to this is Uncomfortable from Marketplace. Wherever you get your podcasts.