Tadao Ando seems to be the new A-list architectural darling. Beyoncé and Jay-Z are the latest to shell out a whopping sum of cash for one of the few Pritzker Prize-winning architect residences in the United States.
The couple just paid $200 million for a nearly 40,000-square-foot, eight-acre property in Malibu that daytime TV producer William Bell and his wife Maria commissioned from Ando in 1999. After building the vision 15 years later, the Bells used it as both a home and a gallery for their famous art collection, including their collection of Jeff Koons.
The purchase of the monumental home by Beyoncé and Jay-Z marks the most expensive residential real estate transaction in California history. It is also the second most expensive home price in US history; Citadel founder Kenneth Griffin’s penthouse in New York’s Billionaires’ Row cost $238 million in 2019, though, to cut corners, it’s an apartment, not a a house. Beyoncé and Jay-Z even struck a deal on their new dig overlooking the Pacific Ocean, paying $95 million under the original demand.
Born in 1941 in Osaka, Ando left a boxing career for architecture after meeting Frank Lloyd Wright‘s Imperial Hotel in Japan. Known for his ability to transform concrete from industrial to poetic and his “haiku” effect by engaging negative space as an architectural element, Ando recently envisioned the exhibition’s minimalist design for “Karl Lagerfeld: a beauty line“, and continues to inspire the likes of Daniel Tyree Gaitor-Lomack and Charlotte Taylor. He won the Pritzker in 1995, received his first American award commission from tom fordand even designed the Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art, as well as the entrance to the MoMA Sculpture Garden.
If anyone wants to top buying Beyoncé and Jay-Z, they’ll have to compete with more than just the price. The all-concrete home centers on picture windows harmonizing man-made and natural light — the better to drink in those multimillion-dollar views, while lending the home’s clean lines that characterize Ando’s buoyancy. Azure swimming pools (in the plural) punctuate the outdoor space, with access to a private beach.
Given that the Knowles-Carter couple amassed their fortunes in large part through Jay-Z’s investment in top-notch artists like Warhol and Basquiat, the property offers plenty of room to shine their own collection.
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