764 Radcliffe Rebuild: Keeping Up with the Pascoes

This was our house on Radcliffe that was destroyed by the Palisades Fire.

(Editor’s note: I promised to keep readers updated about our experience in rebuilding after the Palisades Fire and if construction is being expedited.)

The 1939 home we had bought in 1993, and took possession of after the Northridge Earthquake, was destroyed in the Palisades Fire.

The stucco siding is considered fire resistant, the single-story structure had no attic vents and the roof was asphalt, the garage had a sprinkler (required and expensive), but it seems you need water to stop things from burning.

My husband and I decided to rebuild, the four-bedroom, 2,300 sq. ft. house, because it was our home and Pacific Palisades was our community.  The problem is money. Both of us are nearing retirement and we’re fighting to receive insurance money owed us.

We went to the architects Marmol Radziner, because they helped us remodel the first home, filling it with soul and character. In 1993, they were just starting their business and are now one of the most sought-after architectural firms in the country.

One of the issues with rebuilding during the Northridge Earthquake was the lack of contractors. Marmol Radziner now has a stable of contractors, and we knew it would make the Fire rebuild much easier.

We met with the firm in February and once they knew we wanted a similar home with an indoor-outdoor flow, plans progressed rapidly.

On Monday, June 2, architects submitted the physical set of drawings to the West L.A. Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, which includes architectural, civil, structural drawings and landscape plans.

The next day, June 3, drawings were assigned to a plan check engineer.

By Thursday, June 5, plan check corrections were issued by the engineer.

As Marmol Radziner architect and project manager Bernardo Teran said, “It took the City three days to process, review, and issue their comments and corrections to us. Comments and corrections are typically handwritten on the physical drawing set and are accompanied with a “Corrections Worksheet” and a “Clearance Summary Worksheet.”

He explained that the corrections worksheets list all comments and corrections from the drawing set that need to be addressed by the architect. “These are typically comments related to the design’s conformance to the building codes and in our case the fire rebuild eligibility guidelines,” Teran said.

A L.A. City Clearance Summary Worksheet lists various City departments that the plan check engineer has flagged for review of the project. Under the City’s fire rebuild guidelines, the number of departmental clearances are reduced.

For 764 Radcliffe, architects received seven clearances by three different departments (Bureau of Engineering, Los Angeles Fire Department and Bureau of Sanitation).

“The clearances by these departments range from reviewing the proposed driveway design to confirming the property’s address. All clearances we received are standard to any new single-family residence,” Teran said.

Friday, June 6, the architects picked up the physical set of drawings with comments and corrections.

The call to the plan check engineer was held on June 17, and the next day that engineer confirmed that a soils report was not needed for this fairly simple house on a relatively flat lot.

Teran said, “Now that corrections have been issued and we have full clarity from the plan check engineer on our questions, we are working on addressing the comments internally and with the structural and civil engineers. We are also in the process of receiving all the necessary clearances that were flagged by the plan check engineer. Once this is complete, we will schedule an in-person meeting with the plan check engineer (this editor will go to the meeting and report on it).

Teran explained that for Fire Victims doing a rebuild, those plans are going to the “front of the line” to Building and Safety.

He said that typically on a new single-family residence, the first round of plan check corrections would typically take 6-8 weeks to be issued by the plan check engineer.

The first round of plan check corrections for the Pascoe rebuild took three days, so it has been significantly expedited.

Teran said that the proposed design did not require a soils report review. “This has also led to the reduced number of departmental clearances and amount of review time,” Teran said.

The application with LADWP is a completely separate process from the building permit review and could take eight months.

“Because we are an ‘Eligible Project’ and the building permit review is significantly expedited, we will very likely receive the building permit and commence construction prior to LADWP’s approval of our electrical scope,” Teran said. “LADWP’s lengthy review of our application will not delay construction to start.”