Mickey Muennig’s ‘Owl House’ - Page 2

Built on an 8,100‐square‐foot lot, the architecture's lush, curving lines literally take the hard edges off of daily living, giving the home an informal, relaxed ambience.

Features include 1,650 square feet of living space, open‐beam ceilings, 3 bedrooms and 3 full baths, and walls finished in Venetian plaster. A carefully updated kitchen opens out through sliders to a shaded deck. New plantings, outdoor lighting, and multiple decks made of Ipe wood with minimal railings frame tree‐lined views across Pescadero Canyon.

George Kaye Muennig, known as 'Mickey,' was born in Joplin, Missouri, in 1935. His original intention was to earn a degree in aeronautics, but one day he discovered architecture and never looked back.

Graduating from the University of Oklahoma in 1959, he traveled to Frank Lloyd Wright's Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, where he studied with architect Bruce Goff.

Muennig ventured out to the West Coast in 1971 to attend a Gestalt therapy workshop at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, describing the experience as "enlightening." Deciding to extend his stay, he ultimately found the area so transformative that he remained there for the rest of his life.

There, his visionary work evolved, and he found that he was able to combine his architectural sensibilities with local materials. His pioneering style came to define the look of Big Sur, and led to a study of underground houses and homes built on stilts.

Muennig's Big Sur works include the Psyllos House, the Post Ranch Inn, the Hawthorne Gallery, Esalon Institute Baths, and the Pavey Residence. He spent the last two years of his life with his son and granddaughter in Thailand, before passing at age 86 in 2021.

This is a rare opportunity to own an architectural home created by one of the most pioneering West Coast architects, a true original known as 'The Man Who Built Big Sur.'

Click here to view the Owl House listing as a flipbook.