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Kanye West’s New $57.3 Million Compound Is a Livable Work of Art With Tiny Garage

If any one of us woke up tomorrow with assets worth $1.8 billion, we’d probably buy a lot of stupid stuff. Not Kanye West, though.
Kanye West's new Malibu home, a livable sculpture by Tandao Ando 10 photos
Photo: Roger Davies via Dirt.com
Kanye West's new Malibu home, a livable sculpture by Tandao AndoKanye West's new Malibu home, a livable sculpture by Tandao AndoKanye West's new Malibu home, a livable sculpture by Tandao AndoKanye West's new Malibu home, a livable sculpture by Tandao AndoKanye West's new Malibu home, a livable sculpture by Tandao AndoKanye West's new Malibu home, a livable sculpture by Tandao AndoKanye West's new Malibu home, a livable sculpture by Tandao AndoKanye West's new Malibu home, a livable sculpture by Tandao AndoKanye West's new Malibu home, a livable sculpture by Tandao Ando
Despite the headline that seems to suggest otherwise, Kanye West is a savvy investor, especially in prime real estate. It’s true, his brand-new, multi-million dollar compound, situated right on Puerco Beach in Malibu, California, only comes with the teeniest tiniest garage that can only hold one car, but it was money well-spent either way.

The compound is also a work of art, a livable sculpture by Tandao Ando. Kanye got it on the cheap, too.

Kanye West has long branched out of music into other creative arts, including fashion. He owns several properties across the country, from two condos in New York to his massive ranch in Wyoming and the aforementioned California mansion, which is now occupied by his estranged wife Kim Kardashian and their three children.

Kanye West's new Malibu home, a livable sculpture by Tandao Ando
Photo: Roger Davies via Dirt.com
According to The Dirt, he’s just added another property to that list, and it’s just as impressive as his California mansion: a Malibu private residence designed by Japanese architect Tandao Ando, widely considered one of the best architects of modern times and the one to have “reinvented” concrete. Ando’s approach to design is a perfect fit for Kanye’s brutalist aesthetic, so it makes sense for the latter to pay $57.3 million for a house where you can’t even park more than one car.

The house, which looks like an industrial building slash concrete bunker, was built by Marmol Radziner on a design by Ando. Wall Street financier Richard Sachs bought it in 2003 for as little as $1.9 million and then, for the next seven years, poured millions into it to keep it from sinking into the sand. Because this compound isn’t just a waterfront property: it sits right on the beach, with the waves nearly lapping at its base.

As per reports, it took some 1,200 tons of poured concrete, 200 tons of steel reinforcement, and 12 pylons driven 60 feet (18 meters) into the ground to prevent that from happening. After this massive overhaul, Sachs listed it quietly with The Williams Estates and Hilton Hyland in early 2020, for an asking price of $75 million. The listing was later removed, and Kanye reportedly bought it in an off-the-market deal – and this also explains the scarcity of details and the complete lack of interior photos.

From the street, the building looks unimposing, decidedly uninviting and quite possibly easy to ignore. Google Street views show it has a small garage, with reports online noting that it can hold only one car. Kanye will have to leave his impressive fleet in Wyoming if he ever plans to live here in the long term. It doesn’t have a driveway, either.

Kanye West's new Malibu home, a livable sculpture by Tandao Ando
Photo: Roger Davies via Dirt.com
The compound has no garden, no security fence and sits on a small plot of land, almost squished between two other buildings. What it does have, though (aside from the insane price tag), is direct access to the sea, with a concrete staircase leading from the terrace on the second floor right to the beach.

Each of the three stories has a different function: the bottom level is for the guests, with three guestrooms and a bathroom, for example. The second story is the common area, where you find a living room, a terrace for taking in the views and tanning, powder room, entertainment room, and sauna. The third level is the master suite, a penthouse-like area for the owner, which comes with its own private terrace on the roof.

The compound offers 3,665 square feet (341 square feet) of living space in total, and includes four bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms. The lack of proper parking (“proper” meaning here “suitable for a compound with such a price tag”) is an artistic manifesto, rather than an oversight.

Kanye West's new Malibu home, a livable sculpture by Tandao Ando
Photo: Roger Davies via Dirt.com
The entire living sculpture looks like a bunker, and it’s all on purpose. Ando is famous for his use of concrete – and particularly concrete walls – to create a different experience of space in each project. His buildings favor minimalism with plenty of natural light, and aim to convey a sense of peace through austerity. In short, a design of this kind is right up Kanye’s alley. He’s also known to splurge on things that tickle his fancy like that, like the time he sold his Maybach just so he could afford a Jean Royère Polar Bear sofa.
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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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