Family members look back fondly on Mays’ Landing as a home
Mays’ Landing in Malibu is one of three properties UCLA plans to sell.
By Andra Lim
Feb. 1, 2012 1:35 a.m.
In Malibu, a house sits atop a cliff, surrounded by eucalyptus trees and overlooking a stretch of the Pacific Ocean.
The home is C-shaped, and every window looks out onto the sea. Years ago, its owners planted an English garden and fruit trees: fig, nectarine, peach, apple.
This property ““ Mays’ Landing ““ was donated to UCLA in 1986, and since then, thousands of faculty and staff have held retreats and study sessions there.
But the property is falling into disrepair, with an upkeep cost of $100,000 per year that is expected to increase, said Steve Olsen, vice chancellor of finance, budget and capital programs.
UCLA is planning to sell Mays’ Landing to bring in funds for the university. The property is appraised to be worth around $7.9 million, and proceeds from the sale will go to the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Olsen said.
Over the years, Mays’ Landing has been a locus of academic creativity, as well as a family home and the place where a loving marriage developed.
Renowned psychiatrists Philip and Genevieve May purchased the Landing more than 50 years ago and married there in 1959. Philip May was a schizophrenia expert in the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, while Genevieve May ran a psychiatry practice out of their home.
Peter Rheuby and Margaret Park, the children Genevieve May adopted before she met her husband, remember the home fondly.
Though both were out of the nest by the time the Landing was purchased, they remember visits where their mother would make breakfast, or brew afternoon tea ““ visits where the family could get to know each other better.
After Philip May died of pancreatic cancer in 1986, Genevieve May partially bequeathed Mays’ Landing to UCLA.
She continued to live there, but opened her doors to university visitors, from math professors to the Physics and Astronomy department. The Landing was also home to weekly music events on Sunday afternoons.
Park said her adoptive mother seemed to feel that this would further education, ideas and sharing.
Genevieve May died in 2004, and the entire property went to UCLA, along with a fund for maintenance. Her ashes, as well as Philip’s, are scattered at the Landing, over a rose garden by the garage.
She asked her children to respect her decision to give the place to UCLA, Rheuby said.
“It’s Gen’s property, and the place she lived with the man she loved,” Rheuby said. “But all that has passed and it’s up to (UCLA). … It’s a shame to see it sold, but if they need the money, they need the money.”
Park said the family has been expecting UCLA to sell the property because of the revenue it would generate.
Math Professor James Ralston said that his department used to hold retreats at the Landing, but has switched to the UCLA Faculty Center in recent years. The Landing is tougher to get to ““ about a 45 minute drive from Westwood ““ and parking is limited, Ralston said.
In the throes of tough financial times, keeping the Landing could be a “luxury,” Ralston said.
