A Fine Romance: a poster child for eco-friendly living in Southern California

When Colorado-born Jana Montgomery pictured owning a home, a two-story corrugated-metal cube capped by a roof made from recycled petroleum waste wasn't exactly what came to mind. "I'm a little more of a cottage person,'' Jana confesses.

But Jana and her spouse, Italian architectural photographer and artist Claudio Santini, also harbored dreams of living in an environmentally friendly house large enough to provide a work and display space for Claudio's art. The Los Angeles-based couple lucked out when they heard about a quirky 3,200-square-foot eco-techno home located on a side street within a quiet residential section of Marina del Rey. "We snatched it up before the house even went on the market,'' recalls Claudio. He, Jana, and their rabbit, Chipper, have been living there happily for nearly three years.

Claudio's idea of home sweet home has always been inextricably tied up with the concept of living in a manner respectful of the planet and its limited resources. And by those standards, this is a dream home, to be sure.

The Montgomery-Santini residence was constructed in 1991 by and for John Picard, a renovator of multi-million dollar Hollywood mansions whose ecological epiphany came while watching an MTV public service announcement on the decimation of Earth's rain forests. "That was the first time I had ever thought for one second that I had something to do with the world's environmental problems,'' he says.

As a result, Picard changed careers and began planning a personal residence that would become a poster child for environmentally sustainable living in Southern California. Bucking building trends, Picard constructed his home from recycled steel produced from junked cars, cans, and washing machines. "The house can be disassembled with a quarter inch screw gun and recycled again,'' he explains.

Solar Power
Twenty-one roof-mounted sun-tracking photovoltaic panels allow the house to generate up to 80 percent of its electricity needs, independent of the city-supplied power grid. (The residence's adjoining home office is 100 percent solar-powered.) On overcast days in winter when the solar panels produce less electricity, the Montgomery-Santini residence taps into the city's power grid and consumes conventional energy. On days when Claudio and Jana's home produces a surplus of electricity, that cycle is reversed by a system that allows the grid to "buy back'' energy from them. 

"People are really impressed with the solar panels right off,'' Jana observes. "But when they learn that they can make their electric meter run backward, they always say, 'We'd like to build a house like this.' We feel like the lifestyle we've chosen is encouraging for everyone.''