One of the more remarkable — and remarkably situated — homes on the Malibu coast surfaced on the open market recently. The ‘Wave House,’ designed by California-based architect Harry Gesner, has been nearly four decades between sales. The home is one of two adjacent properties designed by Gesner in this picturesque corner of the seaside city. It is currently priced at $49.5 million.

Gesner’s other high-profile Malibu residence include Ravenseye, which appeared for sale at $14 million a few years ago. The Wave House was designed thirty years earlier, but the two homes share a sympathy from which other Gesner homes — the Flying House and Triangle House, for example — are for the most part excluded. Both are grand expressions, with sweeping, sculpted forms that appear to capture undulation at crest.

The architect designed the 6,451 sq. ft. Wave House for himself and his family, completing it in 1963. As it is supported by stilts, the watery medium provides a foundation at high tide; the ocean below complements the wave-like forms that house and separate the shared living spaces. The icing on the cake, as it were, is the finish of scale-like, hand-cut copper roof tiles that graces the roofline of this more instantly-recognizable section of the home.

The living style of the six-bed, eight-bath home is firmly grounded in the midcentury style, although there is an element of the shipboard at work as well. The living room is dedicated to a massive fireside conversation pit, with vaulted glass opening the room to the ocean; the kitchen and dayroom feel more enclosed, echoing ‘below-decks.’ Exterior hardwood living areas are designed as graceful arcs caught in mid-flight.

Beyond the main home are a guest house, patio, and presumably stairs beach-ward. Gesner was a surfer.

The Gesner-designed companion and neighbor to this home, Sandcastle, is also presently for sale. It appeared this month with an asking price of $27.5 million.