In 1957 Gesner was introduced to recently-divorced swimwear manufacturer Fred Cole, who had bought a difficult site overlooking Hollywood and the Los Angeles basin, in the hills above the Sunset Strip.
Built in six months to meet a deadline for the showing of the new Cole of California collection, the house was described by contemporary writers as an "inverted V," resembling what later became known as the A-frame.
[1][2] Cole, who spent half of the year in Tahiti, wanted a house that combined the character of an island with a mountain lodge.
Gesner followed his by-now established practice of using glue-laminated beams on concrete piers with dramatic roof elements to enclose the space and direct views.
[3] The house was built by a team of Norwegian shipbuilders who would go on to build Gesner's Hollywood Hills Boathouses on similarly difficult sites.