Salvaged chimneys from the Palisades fire are a tangible memorial to L.A.'s unspeakable loss

"High above Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, Kraig Hill stood on a concrete slab and gave a tour of a home that is no longer there. Destroyed in the January wildfires, the home Hill grew up in now exists only as a blueprint in his mind."

"Behind the house was the swimming pool that Hill, a semi-professional musician and producer, and his partner Hashi Clark, an artist, converted into a concert venue. They used to invite guests to sit in the shallow end to listen to musician friends playing in the deep end. Murky rainwater now filled the pool-slash-auditorium. The Buddha survived, but the coral tree that shaded it was gone."

"So when conceptual artist Evan Curtis Charles Hall asked Hill if he wanted to be a part of Project Chimney, a planned memorial to the January fires that will be made up of chimneys salvaged from six destroyed homes - five in Pacific Palisades and one, Hill's home, in Malibu - Hill didn't hesitate."

Six chimneys were salvaged from homes destroyed in the January wildfires in Pacific Palisades and Malibu for a planned memorial called Project Chimney. Homeowner Kraig Hill donated the chimney from the Malibu bluff house where he grew up, leaving only a brick fireplace and chimney among the ruins. The house had featured a swimming-pool concert venue and a concrete Buddha under a coral tree; the Buddha survived but the tree did not. Some chimneys came from houses designed by noted architects including Richard Neutra, Eric Lloyd Wright and Ray Kappe. Chimneys remained among the few intact architectural elements after the fire.

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