Glenrose Bungalow & ADU

On Glenrose Street in Altadena, California, Reframe Systems developed a wildfire-resilient bungalow and ADU for a family rebuilding after the 2025 Eaton wildfires, creating a path back home with lasting resilience for the future. The project includes a 1,550-square-foot single-family bungalow and a 550-square-foot accessory dwelling unit, showing how Reframe’s vertically integrated technology platform can support both primary housing and flexible additional living space on one lot.

For Altadena, Reframe developed a new home product shaped by local preferences, California codes, wildfire conditions, and neighborhood character, while preserving the fundamentals of our manufacturing process. That balance reflects Reframe’s long-term vision for mass customization. The design was informed by Reframe-led Altadena focus groups and a community town hall, and draws from classic Southern California modernism, including Schindler and Neutra, with a Reframe modular twist.

Speaking with the Los Angeles Times, the homeowner described modular as “the natural progression of the housing industry,” but initially explored a traditional custom design. “The costs for building stick-built were going to be well more than we had budgeted.” Reframe’s design flexibility, resilience, and cost efficiency ultimately made the Reframe’s approach to homebuilding the most viable path forward.

Reframe’s platform treats climate resilience as a baseline design input, not a late-stage upgrade. The project includes client-selected sage green fiber cement siding, as well as a 1-hour fire-rated wall assembly, a Class A roof assembly with gypsum underlayment, and metal roofing. The landscape design incorporates a 5-foot Zone 0 noncombustible buffer, along with native shrubs and grasses that support fire resilience while still nodding to the lush Altadena setting. A tight building envelope, continuous exterior insulation, and whole-house ERV air filtration allow the buildings to close up and filter the air when needed, while still opening naturally to Southern California’s indoor-outdoor lifestyle.

The ADU’s all-electric design creates zero onsite operational carbon, while projected energy use 10% below the California Title 24 baseline supports lower utility costs and day-to-day efficiency for the homeowner. Over 60 years, the ADU is also projected to reduce lifecycle carbon by 42% compared to the Title 24 baseline, making it lower-cost to operate and lower-impact over time.

The main home benefits from Reframe’s adaptable building system, creating openness, volume, and spatial flexibility not typically associated with modular construction. From the entry vestibule, the layout flows into connected dining, kitchen, and living spaces anchored by a 13-foot-high great room made possible by a clerestory panel system. Two bedrooms and a front bathroom sit apart from the primary suite, which extends toward the backyard to create privacy and a strong indoor-outdoor connection on the long, narrow lot. Steel-and-porcelain exterior decks add architectural impact and support IBHS Gold specifications

Together, these details show how Reframe’s software-defined matrix manufacturing model preserves the speed, cost, quality, and resilience advantages of factory-built housing while adapting to the needs of a specific project.