Archinect - News

Ye’s gutted Tadao Ando home is purchased by a crowd-sourced real estate investment startup

2024-08-27T12:25:00-04:00

An upstart California property investment venture named Belwood Investments has announced the signing of a purchasing agreement for the Malibu home Tadao Ando designed for Richard Sachs (and later purchased by Kanye West) in 2013. News of the announcement was made public on Monday after the home was placed on the market for a discounted price of $39 million this spring. In a press release, the firm states the deal was made for under $22 million.

The rapper-cum-fashion mogul’s devastating handiwork might otherwise be an obvious drawback. However, the firm, which promotes a crowdsourcing model of ownership, says it plans on spending $5 million to restore its interiors to their original state (the home was worth $75 million when it was constructed). The renovation is expected to take between 12 and 16 months, according to their announcement.

The New Yorker goes inside the architectural cadaver Kanye West made in Malibu

2024-06-11T17:45:00-04:00

Saxon had been hired to carve an oceanside Turrell out of an angular fifty-seven-million-dollar Ando. Ye revealed to Saxon—although not all at once—that he wanted no kitchen, bathrooms, A.C., windows, light fixtures, or heating. He was intent on cutting off the water and the power (and removing the house’s cable and wiring, which ran through the concrete in plastic tubes). He talked of clarity, simplicity, and a kind of self-reliance.

Former contractor Tony Saxson opens up to The New Yorker about his time working with Kanye West and Bianca Censori on the stripped-bare interiors of their Tadao Ando-designed home in Malibu. Some of the better quotes include Ando saying “my decision to accept [clients] projects depends mainly on their personality and aura” and Ye telling Saxson triumphantly “This is going to be my bomb shelter. This is going to be my Batcave.”

Saxson would later file a lawsuit against West for the alleged illegal termination of his services on the demolition project. The house (which appears in a state of decay and cinematic disrepair via a drone video) was re-listed for $39 million – $14 million less than the $57.3 million West purchased it for in September 2021 – in early April.

Kanye West relists Tadao Ando-designed Malibu home for $14 million less

2024-04-12T12:04:00-04:00

Kanye 'Ye' West has reportedly reduced the price of his previously listed Tadao Ando-designed home in Malibu, California, to $39 million, according to Realtor.com. The new price is substantially lower than both the original $53 million listing and the $75 million price tag it carried in 2020 before he paid $57.3 million to purchase the home in September of 2021.

The 4,000-square-foot design from 2013 had been previously owned by Richard Sachs. The deprecation might stem from its reported current state, which was affected by a hasty “gut renovation” performed last year and leaving its interior without finishes and (possibly) electricity, light fixtures, or appliances — resulting in a recent lawsuit.

Marmol Radziner served as the executive architect and general contractor for its original construction. Ando is currently working on the design of a vacation home for West's ex-wife Kim Kardashian in the Palm Springs area after seeing his MPavilion10 commission extended by another full y...

Kanye West lists gutted Tadao Ando home for $53 million in Malibu

2023-12-20T12:37:00-05:00

Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Tadao Ando, the house features a concrete exterior in keeping with the acclaimed architect’s streamlined brutalist ethos. In the couple of dozen months that Ye has owned the property, the music performer and designer removed the home’s interiors, leaving it essentially gutted. Now, instead of renovating the four-bedroom beachfront house on Malibu Road, Ye has decided to sell it, with a price tag of $53 million (he’s listing it at a loss).

Post-divorce Ye apparently contracted a gut renovation that left Ando’s original 2013 design looking more like “a bomb shelter from the 1910s” in the year leading up to its new listing. That endeavor ended in a $1 million lawsuit brought forth by its project manager over dangerous working conditions that remains unsettled.

The four-bed, 4.5-bathroom home had been purchased for $57.3 million in September of 2021. Jason Oppenheim, the agent in charge of its sale, said the new price “reflect[s] the need for the interior finishes to be replaced” and that he was confident in its ability to be “brought up to 2024 standards.”

Ando is meanwhile working on a brand new Palm Springs abode for its former co-inhabitant Kim.

Kanye West sued by project manager at Tadao Ando-designed home who was fired for refusing to perform illegal work

2023-09-14T16:13:00-04:00

A project overseer and estate guardian for Ye, previously recognized as Kanye West, claims he was dismissed for declining to eliminate all windows and electricity from Ye's Malibu residence, as per a legal complaint submitted recently in the Los Angeles County Superior Court and reported by NBC.

The legal action points to breaches of several labor standards, encompassing hazardous work environments, unsettled salaries, and unjust retaliatory firing.

The suit stems from a comprehensive overhaul the controversial rapper was attempting at the $57.3 million property, allegedly with the intention of converting Tadao Ando’s 4-bed, 4.5-bath residence into a bunker-type structure that resembles “a bomb shelter from the 1910s.” Photos published in May appear to show nearly all of the home’s glass and interior fit-out has been removed, adding to the contractor’s claims that Ye was pursuing a design devoid of appliances, electrical power, or even light fixtures.

“He continues his pattern of ...

Kanye West buys $57.3 million Tadao Ando-designed Malibu home

2021-09-20T18:04:00-04:00

Less than a month after the release of his long-awaited album, “Donda,” Kanye West paid $57 million for a Tadao Ando-designed Malibu beach house, which first listed in May 2020.

West purchased the 4,000-square-foot concrete home in an off-market deal with retired Wall Street financier Richard Sachs. It was initially listed at $75 million in May 2020 before being removed from the market.

The former owner commissioned the home, and it was completed in 2013. It has four bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, and is directly on the beach. According to Dirt, the structure reportedly required 1,200 tons of poured concrete, 200 tons of steel reinforcement, and 12 pylons driven 60 feet into the ground to support the heavy home from sinking into the sand.

Tadao Ando is reportedly one of West’s favorite architects, who described a visit to the art island of Naoshima, Japan, where Ando contributed several building designs, as “life-changing.”

Marmol Radziner was the executive architect and general contractor on this project.