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Renowned Malibu architect Harry Gesner died in the summer of 2022, just weeks after his 97th birthday. To say that Gessner’s life was colorful would be putting it mildly. The word “epic” may be more appropriate. Born in Southern California to an engineer father and an artist mother, he began flying airplanes at age 14. At 19, he stormed the beaches of Normandy; (Frank Lloyd Wright) An invitation to study at Wright’s Taliesin School of Architecture led him to work as a tomb robber in Ecuador. Along the way, he dated numerous models and actresses, became brothers with Errol Flynn and Marlon Brando, collected luxury sports cars, and surfed every day into his eighties.
Gessner designed numerous homes throughout California, but his most famous work is found on the shores of his beloved and adopted hometown of Malibu. These include the iconic Wave House, designed for one of the architect’s surfing buddies and topped with a copper-scaled roofline that resembles a series of wave crests.
Next door to the Wave House is Gessner’s own long-time home, which he calls his sandcastle. Completed in 1974, it is a testament to Gesner’s commitment to sustainable building practices. Recycled materials used in the construction include old telephone poles, siding made from aqueduct pipes, birds-eye maple from the high school gymnasium, marble from a soon-to-be-demolished public bathhouse, old redwoods and windows harvested in the 1800s and saved from one of the Hollywood silent movie theaters Down the door.
The beach house first hit the market last year for $27.5 million, and now it’s just sold for a cool $13.5 million. The discount buyer is tech entrepreneur Jason Fried, co-founder and CEO of the multibillion-dollar project management company Basecamp and a noted architecture enthusiast. Last year, Fried paid $26 million for a particularly splendid old estate near Carmel Heights, California.
The entrance to the Sandcastle residence is a library/lounge with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and ocean views. From here, one enters the heart of the house, a spacious, window-wrapped living/dining room with massive spoke-like beams, wood-panelled ceilings and a massive brick fireplace in the center. The fireplace, with its large polished concrete hearth, was modeled after the Hollywood Bowl and provided a stage for Gessner’s wife, actress Nan Martin.
The kitchen wraps around a circular island that echoes the cylindrical shape of the house itself, and features tile countertops, a stained glass half-moon mounted on the overhead beams, a fireplace, newer appliances, a breakfast bar, and a walk-in pantry . Next to the dining area is a sunroom with stained glass panels, and behind the sunroom is a wrap-around deck.
The main level of the home also contains two en-suite bedrooms, one of which has built-ins and is suitable for use as an office. Upstairs is the master suite tower with soaring ceilings, brick fireplace, eyebrow windows, ocean view sitting area, and a spiral staircase with handmade driftwood treads that leads to a studio/loft/meditation space.
Other buildings on the 0.73-acre site include a “treehouse” apartment with kitchenette, living/dining area, bedroom, bathroom and wrap-around deck; and a “boathouse” with a fully equipped kitchen with built-in table and porthole windows to the sea-view living/dining room; another one-bedroom apartment, The Nest, has sea views and stained glass above the indoor/outdoor cabana. There is also a three-car garage with additional parking space.
In addition to 122 feet of oceanfront, exterior amenities include a covered deck, brick patio, lawn, outdoor shower, surfboard and other storage areas, stairs to the beach, and multiple vantage points for stunning sunset views.
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