Designed for clean living
It’s one thing to buy a house in the Amalfi Rim area of Pacific Palisades, perched on top of almost 3 acres at the end of a private cul-de-sac and neighboring the homes of Steven Spielberg, Sugar Ray Leonard, Brian Grazer, Bill Cosby, Tom Hanks and Dennis Tito, the businessman who paid the Russians $20 million for a trip to outer space.
It’s another, however, to gut that house and reinvent it with the help of “green” building and feng-shui experts. But that’s what owners Anthony Browne, chief executive of Santa Monica-based Roxbury Capital Management, and his wife, Gay, did more than 10 years ago.
“Some people might think that was silly, but everything was done in a health-conscious way,” said co-listing agent Nora Wendel of Coldwell Banker, Brentwood. “With the ocean breezes, the owners didn’t want any issues with dampness.”
The couple set out to create as clean and healthy a living environment as possible, given Gay Browne’s allergies.
And so, while turning the ranch-style residence into a Spanish hacienda, the Brownes hired Mary Cordaro, founder of H3Environmental Corp., to ensure that their house was being rebuilt with environmentally sensitive materials, including nontoxic plywood, cotton insulation and a water purification system.
The owners then contacted Ginger Lai, a second-generation feng-shui master. She and Peter deMaria, who designed the house, recommended repositioning the front door, a water fountain and the kitchen stove to enhance, in their view, health and good fortune.
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About this house: Built in 1956, it was rebuilt in 1995 as a high-end environmentally sensitive home. The process led Gay Browne to create Green Media Group, a company that is developing media projects to raise consumer awareness of environmental issues.
Asking price: $9.49 million
Size: There are four bedrooms and five bathrooms in 5,213 square feet.
Features: The hacienda has sweeping ocean and mountain views, landscaped patios and terraces, an oak-paneled library with a stone fireplace, three other fireplaces, a pool and a spa.
Where: Pacific Palisades
Listing agent: Nora Wendel, (310) 979-3913, and Peter Wendel, (310) 979-3927, both at Coldwell Banker-Brentwood.
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To submit a candidate for Home of the Week, please send color interior and exterior photos on a CD with caption information and a detailed description of the house to Ruth Ryon, Real Estate Section, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012; or e-mail homeoftheweek@latimes.com.