A Tree-Hugging Home Reaches New Heights

The location was perfect. Nestled in the woods of Los Angeles, surrounded at night by deer and coyotes, with no neighbors to speak of, this 1950s Hollywood Hills abode was the perfect California hideaway. A five-minute drive put you on Hollywood Boulevard. The western redcedar exterior looked like a cabin, but the midcentury layout felt fresh. Jack Latner had found the perfect house before he even stepped inside.

In 2009, after a year of searching, Latner bought the 1950s Val Powelson home from its third owner. He was easily sold on the property; an 800-square-foot master bedroom addition that enclosed a decades-old California sycamore tree only sweetened the deal. “I thought it was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen,” he says. In a New York Times article featuring the addition, the previous homeowner had said the tree had been there longer than both himself and the house, and for that reason it deserved to stay. Latner, a California transplant, sees this as indoor-outdoor design at its finest. Most people are shocked when they see it, he says, then they ask if it’s real.

Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Jack Latner
Location: Los Angeles
Size: 1,300-square-foot original house; 800-square-foot first-floor addition; 700-square-foot second-floor addition.
Year completed: The original house was built in 1957; the addition was built in 2008; the renovated was completed in 2013.

Architect Aaron Neubert hired an arborist and a landscape designer to survey the tree’s health before he started building the addition for the previous homeowner in 2008. The California sycamore is a very forgiving tree, he says, and both professionals felt confident about building around it. The lush green canopy of the sycamore now extends through and above both floors of the addition.

A custom fireplace is nestled between the original house (to the right here) and the new wing (in the background) on a new bluestone patio.

Steel I-beams frame the sprawling trunk to create a perfect juxtaposition of nature and man-made detail. The tree does what it wants, says Neubert. “Every time I go, the tree is a little different,” he says. California sycamores are admired for their attractive, patchy bark and sweeping habit, and can reach heights of up to 75 feet. 

Latner lived in the house for about three years before he decided to renovate. He tracked down Neubert and asked him to convert the then–master bedroom into a lounge area and open kitchen. A perpetual entertainer, Latner felt this space deserved to be experienced by guests, but he also wanted a more secluded master suite. “I share the rest of this house with the people I love and spend time with,” he says. “I needed to create a separation between the common area and my personal area.”

Neubert felt a little conflicted about revising a home that had turned out so well, but was confident that the love Latner and his family had for the house would lead to another successful renovation.

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A Tree-Hugging Home Reaches New Heights