An L.A. Family Gets Creative With Materials to Make Their Net-Zero Home Undeniably Their Own

A couple enlist their architect parents to build a wonderfully eclectic house, taking on the challenges of a precipitous site and limited budget.

Jan 20, 2021 - 08:34
An L.A. Family Gets Creative With Materials to Make Their Net-Zero Home Undeniably Their Own

A couple enlist their architect parents to build a wonderfully eclectic house, taking on the challenges of a precipitous site and limited budget.

In the Dank Lounge, a film screen lowers in front of room-darkening curtains on movie nights. The deep sectional was built by Lizz and Isaac while the Blob coffee table is by Project Room, and the Scandinavian rya rug is vintage. The couple’s art collection includes works by many friends and local artists. A print by Alex Smith, along with drawings by Cammie Staros and Karl Haendel, hang in the lounge beside a painting by John Finneran and a photo by Lizz.

In 2011, self-identified real-estate psychic Lizz Wasserman and her husband, Isaac Resnikoff, found a plot of unbuilt land in the Highland Park section of Los Angeles. To them, it was the perfect place to build a house and raise a family: a clean slate on the side of a hill, overlooking a sea of palm trees that recedes into the San Gabriel Mountains. 

To their Milwaukee-based architects—Lizz’s parents, Louis Wasserman and Caren Connolly—the site was less than ideal. If certain areas "had been one percent steeper, it would’ve been unbuildable," Louis says, taking in the view behind the couple’s recently finished, three-bedroom, net-zero house.

A deck at Lizz Wasserman and Isaac Resnikoff’s home, in the Highland Park section of Los Angeles, features a table and planters by Isaac’s design studio, Project Room. The chairs are by Mexa Design for CB2.

A deck at Lizz Wasserman and Isaac Resnikoff’s home, in the Highland Park section of Los Angeles, features a table and planters by Isaac’s design studio, Project Room. The chairs are by Mexa Design for CB2. 

Photo by José Mandojana

Lizz’s parents—Louis, an architect, and Caren, a landscape architect—designed the house, which sits on a steep site.

Lizz’s parents—Louis, an architect, and Caren, a landscape architect—designed the house, which sits on a steep site. "This house was successful because it had certain challenges, and the site was definitely one of them," Louis says.

Photo by José Mandojana

Today, Louis, Lizz, Isaac, and baby Esphyr Rain Superbloom are in the outdoor living room, a space where the wall supports and ceiling beams are exposed to the open air. While those four lounge on IKEA outdoor sofas, Caren and Esphyr’s older brother, Eli, are playing inside. As usual, everyone is in stocking feet; shoes belong on the porch, next to the glass-paned front door, which is lined with rainbow dichroic film.

Throughout the home, the walls and floors feature the natural grain patterns of lacquered plywood. The Stokke Tripp Trapp chair in the dining room was Lizz’s when she was growing up in the 1980s while the two Steen Ostergaard chairs were a thrift store find, and Project Room designed the table.

Throughout the home, the walls and floors feature the natural grain patterns of lacquered plywood. The Stokke Tripp Trapp chair in the dining room was Lizz’s when she was growing up in the 1980s while the two Steen Ostergaard chairs were a thrift store find, and Project Room designed the table.

Photo by José Mandojana

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