In the Santa Monica Mountains, call it a wrap

+ February 2010

Sascha Jovanovic wanted to rejuvenate his hillside home. So he gave it a second skin.

By Barbara Thornburg for Los Angeles Times, January 30, 2010

 

It was your typical 1960s stucco home -- like thousands of others just like it on the streets of Southern California. What sold Sascha Jovanovic was not the home itself, but its breathtaking view. "I knew I could fix the house," Jovanovic says, "but you can't install a view."

So he bought the Brentwood house, which steps down a Santa Monica Mountains hillside and opens to Malibu-to-Palos Verdes views, and he lived with uninspired architecture and an insufficient carport for five years before calling L.A. architect Lorcan O'Herlihy.

"At the time, I was considering building something from scratch so I could expand the living quarters and have a garage for the car," says Jovanovic, a dental surgeon. "I thought we would have to tear it down completely to make it feel like a new home."

O'Herlihy suggested another tactic: "How about a face-lift?"

Known for his innovative use of materials, the architect proposed keeping the basic footprint of the structure, then wrapping the home with a new skin.

"We did a comprehensive material research and came across this progressive, sustainable material, Textilene 90," O'Herlihy says, referring to a PVC-coated polyester fabric that resembles a tight white mesh. Formulated in the 1970s to withstand solar abuse and to reduce heat gain, the material had been used in upscale patio furniture before being employed in awnings, roller shades, sun screens and pet enclosures.

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http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-jovanovic30-2010jan30,0,6097250.story