62 DIGS.NET
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12.8.2017
PHOTOS COURTESY OF LISA ROMERIN
SUSTAINABILIT Y PLUS
C
ompleted in 2010, L.A. architect Michael Kovac's
Sycamore House was one of the earliest LEED
Platinum homes in California, with a design approach
that was conscious of the many existing sycamore
specimens on the proper. "We have always incorporated
environmentally sensitive design concepts and materials
into our work, and this project was the perfect opportuni to
really dive deeper into that and explore lots of new things,"
says Kovac of Kovac Design Studio (kovacdesignstudio.
com). "We considered it our 'green laboratory.'" Situated
near the top of the Pacific Palisades at the edge of Santa
Monica Canyon—with views of Downtown L.A., Will
Rogers State Park and the San Gabriel Mountains—the
modern home is rife with green systems, including solar
photovoltaic power with battery backup; solar thermal
hot water; radiant heating and cooling; gray water re-use;
and rainwater capture. "Our favorite green features are
passive, relying on the basic laws of nature," Kovac says.
"For instance, the entire house is designed to maximize
natural airflow and ventilation. ere are windows on the
lower level that pull the prevailing cool ocean breeze into
the house and higher, clerestory windows that allow the
warmer air inside the house to escape." Materials inside
the home also were chosen to be as maintenance-free and
natural as possible, including walls finished with an artisan
veneer plaster rather than paint, along with wood floors
reclaimed from an 1800's barn and a cement panel board
exterior with a high recycled content. "Everything feels
warm and inviting to the touch, not cold or pretentious,"
adds Kovac. Perhaps the most crowning achievement is
a shadowy pattern of sycamore trees created by artist Jill
Sykes that has been hand-blasted into the facade's cement
panels and offers an ever-changing dance with the real
shadows cast by the surrounding sycamores.
