Watch the rebuild.
A camera on site, pointed at the work, running while the school goes back up.
What comes back.
The design restores the buildings that survived and puts a mission-style white shell over the whole campus, tying the new work to the old. Wildfire resilience is built into the requirements: fire-resistant block, better air filtration, and shade trees planted where they cannot overhang a roof.
Renderings by Practice, the project architect, via LAUSD.
How we get there
- January 2025The Palisades Fire. Roughly 70 percent of the campus is lost.
- Since 2025Pali shares a campus with Brentwood Elementary Science Magnet.
- Spring 2025Design finalized and submitted for state approval.
- Q4 2026Groundbreaking.
- Q3 2028Construction complete.
- August 2028Students back on Via de la Paz.
The fire took most of the campus.
The Palisades Fire burned through Pacific Palisades in January 2025. It destroyed or damaged 6,700 structures across the community, and roughly 70 percent of our campus went with it: seventeen classrooms, the multipurpose room, the play equipment.
The historic main building, about a hundred years old, is still standing. Environmental testing cleared the two main buildings for wildfire contaminants, with surface and air sampling finding no smoke residue.
Since the fire, Pali has shared a campus with Brentwood Elementary Science Magnet. Enrollment fell about a quarter, from 410 students before the fire to 307 expected for 2026-2027. That is the part no rebuild budget covers.
PEP is not paying for the buildings.
The $134.9 million rebuild is district money. What PEP raises pays for the second adult in every classroom, the music teacher, the tech program, the garden. That gap does not close on its own, and it did not pause for the fire.