A lone chimney stands in an empty residential lot following the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires.
NEW YORK · May 14, 2026
In the wake of the catastrophic January 2025 wildfires that claimed 31 lives and leveled more than 16,000 structures, Los Angeles is currently grappling with a landscape defined by "the chimneys": lone brick pillars standing in fields of ash. For New Yorkers, this visual of structural remains surrounding a profound void feels hauntingly familiar. It mirrors the design philosophy of the National September 11 Memorial, where the primary monument is not a physical object, but a deliberate, preserved absence.
The Weight of Nothingness
New York’s 9/11 memorial, "Reflecting Absence," famously chose to hold the loss open rather than resolve it with a new skyscraper on the exact footprints of the towers. By allowing water to fall perpetually into the void, the city made its trauma both visible and permanent. Los Angeles is currently experiencing this state by accident rather than design. The chimneys in neighborhoods like Altadena and Malibu have become unintentional monuments to a specific day of grief. While urban recovery typically demands the swift removal of debris to make way for the new, there is a growing civic dialogue about whether these ruins should be integrated into the city’s future memory infrastructure.
From Accident to Intention
The conversation has recently moved into the cultural sphere, notably with Kelly Akashi’s glass chimney installation at the Whitney Biennial. The work asks whether Los Angeles might choose to make the accident into an intention. New York’s experience shows that the most powerful way to honor a tragedy is often to refuse to fill the space it left behind. As members of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network place "Not For Sale" signs on scorched earth, they are echoing a sentiment New York knows well: this ground is no longer just real estate; it is a repository of shared history that does not require immediate resolution.
Source: MySafe:LA / Wildfire:LA / LA Rises / CalFire / California Community Foundation / Whitney Biennial : 2025–2026.
