Last year, a couple of neighboring oceanfront properties designed by the wildly imaginative architect Harry Gesner made news in his beloved and adopted hometown of Malibu—the iconic Wave House, which sold to Joshua Kushner and Karlie Kloss for nearly $30 million, and his personal home, Sandcastle House, which went to tech entrepreneur Jason Fried for $13 million.
Now another equally striking and original home crafted by the self-taught midcentury mandarin has hit the market in the guard-gated Malibu Cove Colony enclave for the first time in more than five decades. The asking price is a dash under $10.5 million, with the listing shared by Zen Gesner, the late architect’s son, and Chris Cortazzo, both of Compass.
A sunken living room is anchored by a floor-to-ceiling brick fireplace.
Mike Helfrich
RELATED: Hockey Legend Chris Chelios Lists His Seaside Malibu Home for $60 Million
Completed in 1975 and owned by the same family since, the dark wood-sided and slanted-roof structure offers a total of four bedrooms and five baths across two levels. Spanning just over 2,600 square feet, the sky-lit living space is a nod to Gesner’s commitment to sustainable building practices, replete with stained-glass windows sourced from a historic church and tall and slender bronze front doors culled from the old San Francisco Mint building.
Beyond a street-side gated entry, a wood footbridge lined with nautical rope empties at the house. Inside, a dining area sits between a fireside family room and a kitchen outfitted with hand-tiled countertops, a butcher block island, a pair of breakfast peninsulas, and double Thermador ovens. Steps lead down to the heart of the house, a sunken living room featuring wide-plank floors, a wood-beam ceiling, a vast brick fireplace, a sitting nook beneath a round stained-glass window, and sliding glass doors opening to an expansive oceanfront deck.
The primary bedroom has a fireplace and sliding glass doors spilling out to an ocean-view balcony.
Mike Helfrich
RELATED: Inside a $10 Million Malibu Beach House That Feels Like You’re Floating on the Ocean
Upstairs, the primary suite flaunts an arched fireplace finished in cobalt blue tile, a curving balcony, and a ladder ascending to a loft retreat overlooking the coastline all the way to Point Dume. The vintage primary bath comes with dual vanities, a built-in soaking tub, and a separate shower, while the guest bedrooms each have their own balconies. In addition to direct beach access, the 0.17-acre parcel also has a two-car garage, plus a monthly $802 HOA fee.
Gesner, who died in 2022 at age 97, was a California native who led an epic life. Born to an engineer father and an artist mother, he learned to fly a plane when he was only 14 years old; stormed the beach at Normandy at age 19; rebuked an invite from Frank Lloyd Wright to study at Taliesin in lieu of becoming a tomb raider in Ecuador; dated models and actresses; fraternized with actors Errol Flynn and Marlon Brando; collected fancy sports cars; and surfed every day into his late 80s. Along the way, he built one-of-a-kind houses still coveted today.
Click here for more photos of the Malibu residence.
Mike Helfrich
Authors
Wendy Bowman
Wendy Bowman is a real estate writer at Robb Report. Before that, she was a freelancer for Modern Luxury and several other media outlets, where she primarily covered luxury properties for…