Known as an architect as “the man who built Big Sur”, Mickey Muennig’s refreshing vision of sustainable architecture on the Central Coast has long been revered. Casa Luna showcases the late architect’s signature design approach, blending modernism with natural landscapes, similar to Frank Lloyd Wright and Richard Neutra.
This Big Sur property recently listed and was on the market for a mere three days before the sellers accepted an offer. Listed for $5.5 million, it is now in contract for an unknown amount, and has been one of Muennig’s more reasonable creations listed lately, with another asking $32 million currently and his own residence seeking $7 million last year.
The curving, unconventional home, inspired by the villages of Greece and the shape of the moon, was designed in 1982. In 1998, Sheila Shepard purchased the property for $675,000 with her husband Gaston Georis, a well-known local restauranter, and it hasn’t changed hands since then.
Muennig’s unique designs are dotted along the California coast, and usually showcase soft, organic lines and materials that highlight the surrounding beauty. This home spans 3,000 square feet, including four bedrooms and four full bathrooms with private outdoor patios accessible from nearly every room.
It embraces forms found in nature as well as palpable warmth with wood elements in the stairs, a myriad of arches, and earthy, desert hues across the property’s three cascading levels. Undoubtedly the home’s pièce de résistance, the grand main living room centers around an adobe-style fireplace and floor-to-ceiling glass walls that serve up panoramic ocean views.
“The curves of the rooms almost feel like they’re wrapping around you, like a hug almost,” one of the listing agents, Zak Freedman, told Mansion Global. “You just feel really cozy and then the way the curves open up to the views outside into nature to take it all in… it just focuses your attention out to the natural beauty, whether it’s the ocean or the canyon or the mountains or the sky.”
In addition to the fruit trees and inclined garden beds, there is a detached structure that can be used for anything the potential buyer desires: An art studio, home office, or guest apartment. Truszkowski Freedman & Associates of Sotheby’s International Realty held the listing.
