Seaside Sandcastle for Sale

As kids, the idea of living in a sandcastle is the stuff that dreams are made of. As adults, it takes a visionary architect like Southern Californian Harry Gesner to turn those magical visions into reality.

Now on the market for the first time since it was built, Gesner's Sandcastle home in Malibu is a dramatic piece of architecture that meets the land and sea in perfect harmony.

"I have enormous pride in my father," says listing agent Zen Gesner, the architect's son. Representing the residence at 33604 Pacific Coast Highway with agent Chris Cortazzo, the younger Gesner has listed the luxury property for $27.5 mil.

Zen recalls how passionate his dad was, about everything from his family to his architectural projects, and how he drew his inspiration from nature.

"Dad was a wonderful, wonderful character," Zen says, referring to Sandcastle as "a dream place, built with love."

And built with love it was. "My father built the Sandcastle pretty much for my mom," explains Zen.

"Back in 1969, he drove my mother, who was a Broadway actress at the time, out to Malibu, and proposed to her on the lot overlooking the lot where the Sandcastle would be built. He told her, 'If you marry me, I will build you a dream house on that lot.'"

As a young architect in the early 1970s, Harry couldn't afford a contractor, Zen recalls, so he decided he would have to build the beachfront home himself.

"During construction around 1971, when I was about two years old, he said we were making sandcastles out on the beach, and that's where he got the inspiration for the design."

With his sights set on a secluded seaside cove in Malibu with 122 feet of beachfront, Harry began searching for construction materials. Building on the seashore wouldn't be easy, Zen recalls, but Harry appreciated a good challenge, saying, 'The challenge is what is exciting in architecture. Just watch what you can do—the bigger the problem, the better the solution.'

Harry was resourceful, and an early proponent of sustainable architecture. To construct the home, he sourced old-growth heart redwood harvested back in the 1800s, telephone poles, reclaimed bricks, birds-eye maple from a high school gym, and windows and doors rescued from a Hollywood silent film theater. From a project he had worked on in Northern California, he repurposed aqueduct pipes that he would later convert into wall panels.