Harry Gesner, Architect

Malibu, CA

Facing a panoramic view of the ocean from the circular living room of his iconic Sandcastle House, Harry Gesner recalls, “I always knew I wanted to be an architect. The first things I remember in art were blocks of wood, a game of putting blocks together and building little things with it. My parents gave me this collection of blocks--round, triangular, square, everything. I was always putting them together in different forms, even at four years old.”

The son of an engineer and a fine artist, Harry Gesner credits his family as formative influences, giving him, in equal parts, a knack for problem-solving and a deep sensitivity to aesthetics and form. His father, inventor of the automobile supercharger, instilled in him natural curiosity. From his mother, he inherited fine art hand-skills, as well as an impulse to create, to make real and tangible things from his imagination. “She was always drawing. She was also a sculptress. We had a kiln and the kiln sat in my bedroom. In the winter time it was the heater for my room. And on the ceiling she painted the stars, the moon, and the constellations. So, I sort of lived in a world of art. I was lucky, I was very lucky.”

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Full story available in Faculty Department Vol. 2

Photographed in 2018 – Malibu, CA

Harry Gesner, Architect

Malibu, CA

Ido Yoshimoto

Molly Sedlacek

Faculty Department Vol. 2