150 DIGS.NET
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12.15.2017
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.
