Altadena, CA · Outdoor Design-Build
Landscape Design & Outdoor Construction in Altadena
Licensed, insured, and building alongside Altadena’s recovery. Fire-wise landscapes, engineered retaining walls, pools, and driveways for foothill properties.
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A Community Rebuilding
An Outdoor Builder for Altadena’s Rebuild
Altadena is rebuilding on a scale few communities ever face. The Eaton Fire took more than 9,000 homes and businesses in January 2025, and the recovery since has been measured in thousands of permit applications, hundreds of homes under construction, and a slow return of families to streets they have lived on for generations.
Line of Art Construction is an outdoor design-build firm. We handle the landscape, hardscape, retaining walls, drainage, pools, and driveways that surround a home, and on rebuild projects we work alongside your architect and general contractor so the outdoor construction is planned with the house rather than bolted on after it.
Fire-Resistant Landscaping
Fire-Wise Landscape Design Is Not a Compromise
Rebuilding in the Altadena foothills means building for the next fire, not just recovering from the last one. That does not mean gravel and bare dirt. A well-designed defensible-space landscape reads as a finished garden, and most visitors never register that it was engineered for ember resistance.
For Altadena properties, particularly those on the upper streets against the Angeles National Forest boundary, we design around defensible-space zones:
0–5 feet from the structure
Zone 0: Non-Combustible and Beautiful
This band is where wind-driven embers accumulate and ignite. We build it from non-combustible material: stone, porcelain, concrete, gravel, and hardscape, with planting kept out of it entirely. California has been phasing in an ember-resistant zone requirement covering these first few feet, so this is the area where current rules should be confirmed with the county before design is finalized.
5–30 feet
Zone 1: Outdoor Living That Works as a Buffer
This is where outdoor living belongs: patios, pools, outdoor kitchens, and widely spaced, low-resin planting. Hardscape here doubles as fuel break, which is why a generous paved terrace is both the most usable part of the garden and the most protective.
30–100 feet
Zone 2: Structured Outer Landscape
On the deeper Altadena lots that run up toward the foothills, we thin, limb, and space planting so fire moving through the outer landscape stays low and slow rather than climbing into tree canopy and reaching the house.
Looks like a designed landscape & performs as a hardened one.
Retaining Walls & Terracing
Foothill Grade, Foothill Drainage
Altadena sits on an alluvial fan running down from the San Gabriels, and the north end of town climbs hard. Lots on streets above Altadena Drive routinely carry real grade change, and the soils move seasonally. Burn-scar hydrology has made this sharper: ground stripped of vegetation sheds water far faster than it did before 2025, and debris flow risk after heavy rain is a live concern across the foothill margin.
We design and build engineered retaining wall systems, concrete block with stone or stucco finish, segmental walls with geogrid reinforcement, and terraced arrangements that turn unusable slope into level ground. Drainage is designed first: aggregate backfill, perforated collector, filter fabric, and an outlet that puts water somewhere deliberate. On this terrain that detailing matters more than anything visible on the surface.
Get Your Free EstimateRebuilding in Altadena
Working in Altadena Right Now
We are candid with homeowners about what building here currently involves. Our job is to make the outdoor portion predictable.
Licensed, Insured, Verifiable
Unlicensed operators have been charged with targeting Eaton Fire victims, and that has made verification a reasonable first question rather than an insult. Our California license can be checked on the CSLB website by name or number, along with our bond and workers compensation status. We would encourage you to run that check on us and on anyone else you are considering.
One Accountable Team
We handle design, engineering coordination, permits, and construction as a single accountable team, so the outdoor scope does not fragment across trades that each blame the other when something settles.
Coordinated With Your Rebuild
Los Angeles County permitting for Altadena rebuilds has its own streams and timelines. For rebuilt homes we sequence the outdoor work with your architect and general contractor, so utilities, grade, and drainage are resolved before hardscape goes down rather than cut back in afterward.
Year-Round Outdoor Living
Pools, Patios, and the Way Altadena Lives Outside
Altadena has always been a place where the outdoors does real work. Deep lots, mature trees, mountain views north, and a climate that runs hot and dry inland without the coastal damp. That makes shade, surface temperature, and water-wise planting the governing design questions here rather than afterthoughts.
Pools and Spas
New pool and spa construction, and remodels of older pools on properties where the house is being rebuilt around them. Coping-to-deck detailing matters on this soil, which moves seasonally while the pool shell does not.
Hardscape and Outdoor Kitchens
Full hardscape environments in stone, porcelain, and concrete paver, plus outdoor kitchens built in non-combustible materials rather than framed in timber.
Backyard remodeling in Los Angeles →Landscape Lighting
Low-voltage lighting designed for level changes, steps, and paths, which on sloped foothill lots is a safety item as much as an aesthetic one.
Driveways and Arrival Sequences
Paver and concrete driveways engineered for grade. On the steeper Altadena streets the driveway is a drainage structure as much as a surface, and it needs to be designed that way.
Driveway installation →Engineered for Grade and Drainage
Across the foothill margin we engineer grade transitions and drainage so water from a heavy winter storm is carried deliberately rather than finding its own path through the garden.
Planning your rebuild?
We will coordinate the outdoor work with your architect and general contractor from day one.
Get Your Free EstimateFree Consultation + Free 3D Design
See Your New Landscape Before It's Built
We begin every project with a free consultation and a free 3D design, so you can see your future landscape rendered in detail before committing to anything.
For families who are rebuilding, that 3D step has proven especially valuable. After losing so much, being able to walk through your new outdoor space visually (to adjust the terrace, move the fire feature, see the planting mature) restores a sense of control over the process.
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Building Resiliently
The Long View
Altadena will come back street by street, the way communities with deep roots do. The homes going up now are built to tougher standards than the ones they replace, and the landscapes around them can be held to the same standard. Line of Art Construction would be glad to be part of that work, building outdoor space that is beautiful, usable, and genuinely more resilient than what stood before.
Line of Art Construction would be honored to be part of that work, building outdoor spaces that celebrate this extraordinary stretch of coastline while respecting what it has taught everyone about resilience.
Service Area
Serving Altadena
We design and build across Altadena, from the flats south of Mariposa up through Janes Village, Meadows, and the upper streets along the foothill margin, and in neighbouring Pasadena, La Cañada Flintridge, and Sierra Madre.
Line of Art Construction
Main office
6463 Mammoth Ave, Unit A
Van Nuys, CA 91401
(818) 232-1964Altadena Landscaping FAQ
Questions Altadena Homeowners Ask Us
Does fire-resistant landscaping have to look bare?
No. Defensible-space landscaping does not mean gravel and bare dirt. Generous hardscape, deliberate plant spacing, clean lines, and the right species produce a garden that looks designed and performs under ember attack.
What goes in the 0–5 foot zone around my home?
Zone 0 is where embers do their damage, so we build it with non-combustible materials: natural stone walkways, paver aprons, poured-in-place concrete borders, and steel or masonry planters with succulents and other low-fuel plants. No wood mulch against the house and no shrubs under the eaves.
Do you build retaining walls on Altadena hillsides?
Yes. Retaining walls are one of our core services. We design and build engineered wall systems (concrete block with stone or stucco finishes, or board-formed concrete) with proper drainage behind the wall, creating usable terraces and helping stabilize slopes, including slopes that lost vegetation.
Can you work alongside my architect and general contractor on a rebuild?
Yes. We coordinate with your architect and general contractor so outdoor construction sequences correctly with the house: driveway and flatwork after heavy equipment is done, planting and finish work last.
Do you handle permits in Altadena?
Yes. Altadena is unincorporated Los Angeles County, so rebuild permitting runs through the County rather than a city department, with its own streams and review timelines. Retaining walls above the exempt height, grading, and drainage work are permitted in their own right. We coordinate that scope and confirm current requirements with the County for your specific parcel.
Is the consultation and 3D design free?
Yes. Every project begins with a free consultation and a free 3D design, so you can see your future landscape rendered in detail before committing to anything.
Rebuilding · Remodeling · Rethinking
Let's Build the Next Chapter Well
If you are rebuilding, remodeling, or ready to rethink your outdoor space in Altadena, contact us for a free consultation and a free 3D design.