In the spring of 2022, as Russian missiles rained on Ukraine, architect Max Povar was on a video call thousands of miles away, calmly discussing kitchen finishes with Bay Area clients.
His California homeowners had no idea that just outside Povar’s window in Kyiv, air-raid sirens howled through the night. Over the past several years, Povar designed high-end custom homes in California — including multi-million dollar residences in the Bay Area — all while living and working in a war zone. “Many clients didn’t even realize I was working remotely, let alone from a war zone,” Povar says.
Despite nightly blackouts and the constant threat of attacks, he delivered luxurious homes 6,000 miles away on time and to exacting standards.
Povar’s journey began in Ukraine, where he inherited a love of architecture from his father, himself an architect. He studied architecture in Kyiv and dove into the profession right after college. In 2017, an unexpected partnership launched his international career.
Vadim Zanko, a Northern California designer who had started a firm called Lev Designs in 2015, was looking to grow his one-man practice. The two met (initially over the internet) and hit it off.
They officially launched Lev Designs in 2017, effectively co-founding it as a bi-continental venture. Zanko ran client relations and business development on the ground in California, while Povar became the firm’s principal architectural designer.
Over the next few years, Lev Designs grew rapidly. Povar’s design talent and Zanko’s local savvy proved a symbiotic combination. By 2024 the firm expanded to a team of about 30, including architects and drafters across multiple locations
From the beginning, Povar worked remotely from Ukraine, designing California homes via laptop long before “remote work” became a pandemic buzzword. He mastered California’s complex building codes and permitting processes from Kyiv, learning how to produce plans that would pass muster with faraway planning departments.
In February 2022, Povar’s dual life as a California architect in Kyiv took a harrowing turn. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine brought war literally to his doorstep. Life overnight became a blur of air-raid alarms, news alerts, and anxious calls to family.
For a time, all local architecture work in Ukraine halted as people focused on survival. But Povar’s California projects could not simply stop – houses were still under design with schedules to meet. Designing peaceful California homes became a mental escape from the surrounding chaos.
After more than a year of balancing war and work, Povar made a life-changing decision: he relocated to California. In the Summer of 2024, he was able to move out of Ukraine and settle in Northern California, where he could finally work side-by-side with the colleagues and clients he’d only seen on screens. Povar’s family remains in Ukraine and Eastern Europe, but he hopes to bring them to California, too.
Today, Povar is based in the Sacramento area (Roseville) and serves as the Principal Design Visionary at Lev Designs, as well as a lead designer in Lev’s newly acquired sister company, MDA Group, which focuses on multi-family and commercial projects.
The Bay Area Telegraph chatted with Povar to hear more of his striking story.
What were the biggest challenges in learning California’s building codes and processes remotely?
The hardest part was definitely adapting to a completely different construction system — in Ukraine, we use masonry; in California, it’s all about framing and studs. Also, switching from metric to imperial units (centimeters to inches/feet) was a surprisingly big adjustment!
On top of that, the building codes themselves are based on different foundations: Ukraine follows legacy Soviet systems, while California codes are rooted in international standards. But I dove in — watching hours of YouTube videos, studying real plan sets, and reading everything I could find. English fluency helped tremendously, thankfully.
Was there a steep learning curve to designing homes up to California standards from abroad?
Absolutely — it was a massive learning curve. I had to essentially re-learn architecture from the ground up: local design standards, energy codes, zoning logic, and more. There was no ChatGPT back then, so every small question meant deep research or finding someone to ask. But my background in architecture helped me draw parallels and problem-solve my way forward.
Can you describe a specific day during the war when you had to balance work and safety?
There were many. I remember one winter day with a major deadline — no power in my district, so I drove across the city just to upload a file. I had already installed Starlink, backup batteries, and a generator to keep my PC and internet running, but there were days when even that wasn’t enough.
I’ve worked from cold, dark rooms powered by a single generator just to meet deadlines. I never canceled client meetings due to air raid alerts — somehow I convinced myself nothing would happen during those hours. There’s a strange kind of normal that sets in when you work through war.
How did you manage the 10-hour time difference with California?
It became my normal. I’d start around 10 or 11 a.m. Ukraine time and often work until 2, 3, even 4 a.m. to overlap with U.S. teams and clients. I did that for nearly 7 years. It wasn’t easy, but it allowed me to stay responsive and build trust from thousands of miles away.
Most memorable project you designed remotely for California?
One of them is a stunning modern home for Dan Nevezi of Nevezi Custom Homes. I started it just as the war began. We’ve done more homes together since. The best part? When I finally arrived in the U.S., I got to see the home under construction — and later, fully built. That moment was unforgettable.
Another standout was a collaboration with Tamasi-Ross Construction — one of those rare projects where the final built home mirrored my original sketch almost perfectly. Seeing it in real life, after working on it entirely from Ukraine during the war, was an unforgettable moment — the kind every architect dreams of.
How did you make up for not doing site visits?
I relied a lot on our local team in the U.S., but also got creative — using Google Earth, site photos, and good old-fashioned questions. It wasn’t perfect, but I made it work. Remote design forces you to really sharpen your intuition and communication.
How did clients react when they learned you were working from a war zone?
Honestly, the support was overwhelming. Our clients were so kind and understanding — once they found out, they were even more appreciative of the effort. Many were shocked, but deeply encouraged. It gave me emotional fuel during some of the darkest times.
