Thinking Green, Architect Strikes Gold

Berkeley resident Maurice Levitch lives in a home he remodeled with denim insulation, bamboo floors and recycled glass countertops.

Levitch, an award-winning architect who grew up in Berkeley and graduated from UC Berkeley in 1984, spent eight months and $360,000 rebuilding his South Berkeley bungalow in 2004 to meet "green" standards of resource conservation andr low energy consumption.

Last month, more than 500 people toured Levitch's home after it received the award for Best Larger Home Renovation in this year's Build It Green Home Tour, a competition among homes in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

His two-story house was also the January cover story for Builder/Architect magazine and may be featured in Real Simple magazine.

"The interest was incredible," Levitch says.

Levitch, 45, remodeled his home with a photovoltaic system to generate electricity, a high-efficiency boiler for hot water and a heating system that uses water running through tubes in the floor.

"I even took my old roof rafters, saved that lumber and made it into tables," he says.

The insulation is made of recycled denim and does not emit harmful vapors like formaldehyde. According to Levitch, the air inside homes with regular insulation can be up to 10 times more polluted than outside air.

The renovation also doubled the bungalow's square feet by adding a second floor with three bedrooms, a bathroom and a basement for storage and play space for his children.

Although the additions totaled 1,500 square feet, he did not expand the footprint of the house. Limiting the building's footprint preserves the surrounding environment, Levitch says.

Levitch, who has helped renovate eight buildings in the Bay Area to meet green standards, says his local upbringing inspired him to pursue architecture. He grew up working for the family firm, Levitch Associates Inc., which his father founded in 1960 in West Berkeley.

"Architects have a large effect on our local environment because everyone winds up living somewhere," Levitch says.

Today, Levitch lives with his family across the street from the Berkeley hospital he was born in and his four children go to the same elementary school he attended decades ago.

Levitch's interest in remodeling and recycling developed during his days as an Eagle Scout and during his early exposure to older and diverse buildings in the area.

Remodeling and recycling, along with energy efficiency and indoor air quality, are components of Levitch's specialty-green building.

The objective of green building is sustainability, which Levitch defines as "anything you do to reduce energy consumption and helps protect our planet."

He says although he had always had a natural tendency to conserve when designing his buildings, it was a client he had three years ago who insisted that Levitch follow green principles.

Levitch says students can take steps to leading a sustainable lifestyle by using public transportation, buying recycled products and conserving electricity.

In response to Berkeley's ranking as the third most sustainable city by the nonprofit organization SustainLane, he says, "I think Berkeley still has a lot farther to go, so it makes me concerned about other communities in the rest of the country."

Levitch is excited to hear about the ranking, however, showing his characteristic Berkeley pride. Referring to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo's leading architecture program, he jokes, "You might get a job right out of school from there, but in 10 years, you'll be working for a Cal grad."

A correction to this article can be found here.

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