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Harry Gesner

The modern architect reflects on wooing his wife by designing her a house in Malibu

Harry Gesner, a 90-year-old maverick modern architect from Malibu, designs with a focus on the environment and a disregard for convention. Instead of taking up Frank Lloyd Wright's offer to study at Taliesin, he spent years teaching himself the building trades, a DIY attitude that inspired his own unorthodox projects.

Nearly born surfing—he was taught by lifeguards near his childhood home in Oxnard, California—€”it became his passion, and influenced the design of his most famous building, the copper shingle-crested Wave House, a frozen series of cresting roofs which he first sketched on the back of a surfboard with a grease pencil.

Curbed met him at his home, the Sandcastle House, located on the Malibu beachfront next door to the Wave House.

For Home Sweet Home, Curbed talked to 30 engaging personalities across a range of industries to learn about where they grew up and what home means to them.

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Video Production by: Sarah Bishop, Ben Carey, Sara Intrator, Sara Masetti, Max Mellman, Anthony Morgan, Danush Parvaneh, Mark Olsen, Ryan Simmons