Dining, defined

When Los Angeles architect Alla Kazovsky first laid eyes on the spot that would become her new home, she was struck by its immense front yard. The Nichols Canyon property was overgrown, and the house was a dilapidated 1934 ranch--but that “almost didn’t matter,” she says. “All I saw was the potential of this huge piece of land.”

Perhaps it was her background--she and her husband are from the chilly reaches of the former Soviet Union--that seeded her twin desires for the yard: a swimming pool and a place for lingering alfresco dinners on balmy summer nights. She cleared the land, carefully retaining a collection of mature citrus and oak trees as well as 100 rosebushes the former owners had lovingly cultivated. Installing a 40-foot lap pool that hugs the perimeter of the property came next.

Then, alongside the pool, she created an open-air dining room, starting with its floor of large Bouquet Canyon stones interspersed with dymondia.

“I thought the roses growing on one side and the swimming pool wall on the other, as well as the stone floor, would be enough to define the space,” Kazovsky says. But something was missing: lighting that would pull people into the room and make them want to stay. Her first attempt to create it, a single industrial fixture attached to the outside pool wall, created too much glare. So she designed her own lighting system--a series of five 8-foot-tall aluminum beams with right-angle arms that embraced and further defined the room.

The arms contain low-voltage fixtures fitted with MR16 bulbs at each end that highlight the fragrant roses while casting a soft, even glow on the table. Kazovsky, and her husband, Dr. Alexander Popov, delight in dining under the stars with daughters Nastya, 131/2, and Mia, 16.

“Even though in St. Petersburg we had these very long summer days, it was always too cold for me to eat outside,” Kazovsky says. “I despise being cold. The climate in California is perfect.” And the room she carved from a once wild yard is all the more reason to enjoy it.

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Lighting

Dimensions/lights: 8 feet tall with 4-foot arm.

Materials: 2-inch- by-2-inch aluminum with a clear anodized finish; MR16 bulbs.

Cost: $750 each.

Architect: Alla Kazovsky Architects, Los Angeles, (323) 436-0286.