Karlie Kloss and Josh Kushner just dropped $29.5 million on Malibu’s legendary Wave House. Take a look inside.
August 26, 20240
The living room of Wave House, architect Harry Gesner’s ode to the ocean.
Simon Berlyn
Karlie Kloss and Joshua Kushner spent $29.5 million on a house on one of Malibu’s coveted beaches.
Wave House, once owned by singer Rod Stewart, was listed for the first time in 36 years in 2023.
The mansion, designed by architect Harry Gesner to look like cresting waves, has six bedrooms.
Karlie Kloss and Joshua Kushner are the new owners of an iconic Malibu property, The Wall Street Journal exclusively reported on Monday.
According to unnamed sources familiar with the deal who spoke to the Journal, the supermodel, 32, and the billionaire venture capitalist, 39, purchased Malibu’s Wave House for $29.5 million over a year after it hit the market for the first time since 1987.
The estate of Mo Ostin — the late record executive known for signing Jimi Hendrix and The Kinks who was the home’s most recent owner — listed the property for sale in June of 2023 for $49.5 million.
Representatives for the couple and Zen Gesner, the real-estate agent on the listing and son of the Wave House’s visionary architect, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
The beachfront property, with three rooflines shaped like cresting waves and topped with layered shingles evocative of fish scales, is nestled into a secluded cove in Western Malibu.
Kloss and Kushner — the brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and youngest son of real-estate mogul Charles Kushner — would be the latest in a line of notable owners.
Take a peek inside their new digs, and find out more about the history behind the architectural icon.
Architect Harry Gesner designed the Wave House to mesh with the surrounding coastal landscape.
Wave House viewed from the ocean.
Simon Berlyn
After the group found the site — a hidden cove with good surf up the coast from the famous Malibu Colony neighborhood — Gesner spent two days on a surfboard bobbing out at sea, peering back at the parcel.
It was on a 12-foot balsa wood surfboard that the architect first sketched the house with a grease pencil, the lore goes.
“It was exactly as it is now, in every way, thrusting out into the surf at high tide and nestled back in the sand at low tide,” he told Lisa Germany in her 2012 book “Houses of the Sundown Sea: The Architectural Vision of Harry Gesner.”
The roughly 6,200-square-foot house, with six bedrooms and eight bathrooms, was a success in the original owners’ eyes.
Wave House from the side.
Simon Berlyn
For its quirky exterior that mirrors the swells of the Pacific Ocean it faces, Wave House has become an icon of California midcentury architecture since its completion in 1963.
The three oceanfront rooms are ringed by 176 feet of curved deck overlooking the waves.
The living room’s conversation pit.
Simon Berlyn
The original material remains under the stucco that was added on in later years.
“Oftentimes, you can have too much view and you need a foreground to look around or an inner view to rest your eyes and thoughts on,” Gesner said of the fireplace.
Another focal point in the room is its sunken conversation pit, a favorite midcentury design convention.
In contrast to the parts of the home that jut toward the sea, there’s also a section that settles into the rocky landscape behind the house.
The dining area.
Simon Berlyn
To that, Harry replied, “I wish people would not insist that something looks like something else, but they do. It’s human nature and a bore.”
Rock star Rod Stewart purchased the home in the 1970s and sold it to the late celebrated music executive Mo Ostin in 1987.
Wave House stands in the center with the Sandcastle to its right.
Simon Berlyn
Gesner, the architect, died in 2022 at the age of 97.
After designing Wave House, Harry bought land next door and built himself and his family a home inspired by sandcastles.
Completed in 1974, the aptly named Sandcastle house hit the market in May 2023 for $27 million. The six-bedroom, six-bathroom property sold in February 2024 for $13.5 million.
Gesner’s son Zen, a real-estate agent behind the sale of the Wave House, told the Journal that neither it nor the Sandcastle has landmark protection.
Wave House at dusk.
Simon Berlyn
Zen Gesner told the outlet he feels confident buyers would not want to tear down the homes.
“It’s our hope that nobody ever has that intention,” he said.
