Meridian Estates

Palm Springs · Big Sur — private brokerage since 1987

Architecture, represented.

We represent architect-built houses the way a gallery represents its artists — few at a time, placed with care, sold to people who understand what they are holding.

Spring catalog — three lots

View the lots

Viewings at dusk, by appointment

The premise

A great house is not inventory. It carries authorship, provenance, condition — the vocabulary of art, because that is what it is.

Meridian Estates was founded on a narrow conviction: that the postwar houses of Palm Springs and the Big Sur coast are the most important body of residential architecture in America, and that almost no one sells them accordingly. A Kessler pavilion listed beside tract stucco is a category error. We built the brokerage that corrects it.

We take on very few houses. Each is researched like a museum acquisition — original drawings recovered, alterations documented, restoration verified — then presented in a catalog and shown privately, at the hour the architecture was designed for. Dusk, when the glass goes gold and the desert goes blue.

Established
1987
Houses placed
38
Lots per year
Five, never more

Spring catalog — 2026

The lots

  • Sightline House: a steel-and-glass pavilion glowing warm at dusk above the desert floor, boulders and brush in the foreground.

    Lot 01

    Sightline House

    Vernon Kessler, FAIA · 1962 · Palm Springs

    A steel pavilion lifted clear of the desert floor, its sightline running unbroken from the entry through fourteen bays of glass to the San Jacinto ridge. Restored to the 1962 drawings in 2021.

    Sale estimate

    $12,400,000

    4 bd · 5 ba · 5,412 sq ft · 1.8 ac

  • Tidewater House: a board-formed concrete and glass house on a Big Sur cliff at dusk, fog and dark ocean below.

    Lot 02

    Tidewater House

    Joaquín Serra · 1974 · Big Sur

    Board-formed concrete shouldered into the cliff, one hundred ninety feet above the Pacific. Single ownership for five decades; the fog arrives most evenings around seven.

    Sale estimate

    $18,750,000

    3 bd · 4 ba · 4,120 sq ft · 5.6 ac

  • Lantern Court: a courtyard house seen through a travertine breeze-block screen at dusk, reflecting pool and olive tree within.

    Lot 03

    Lantern Court

    Ada Brandt · 1969 · Palm Springs

    A courtyard plan behind a travertine breeze-block screen — reflecting pool, single olive tree, rooms opening inward. At dusk the street wall glows like a paper lantern.

    Sale estimate

    $9,850,000

    5 bd · 6 ba · 6,340 sq ft · 1.1 ac

Lot 01, in detail

Floor plan — as restored, 2021

Living Dining Kitchen Primary Study Gallery Terrace Pool — 68 ft Carport N 0 28 ft

Particulars

ArchitectVernon Kessler, FAIA
Completed1962
RestorationStudio Ossa, 2019–2021
Site1.8 acres, Little Tuscany
StructureSteel post-and-beam, 14 ft module
GlazingFull height, fourteen bays east
Pool68 ft lap, original plaster
ProvenanceTwo owners since completion
DocumentsOriginal drawings, 1961 · condition report, 2026
Sale estimate$12,400,000
Request the catalog entry

The approach

No portals. No open houses. No hurry.

  1. 01 — Appraisal

    We spend a week with the house before we agree to represent it. Archive research, original drawings, a full condition survey. If the architecture has been compromised beyond recovery, we decline.

  2. 02 — The catalog

    Each lot is photographed at dusk in a single continuous series, documented like an exhibition: authorship, provenance, restoration record, estimate. The catalog is printed, not posted.

  3. 03 — Placement

    Lots are shown privately to a shortlist of collectors and stewards. We are not looking for the fastest buyer. We are looking for the right next owner — the house will outlive us both.

Detail of a travertine breeze-block screen at dusk, each cell glowing warm from the courtyard behind.
Lantern Court — travertine screen, lit from the courtyard.

Private viewings

Request a viewing

Viewings are held at dusk, by appointment, weekdays only. A principal of the brokerage attends every showing.