Kanye West gave Malibu home a makeunder — and devalued it by $14M
Kanye West has shocked the real estate world by demolishing a $53 million beachfront mansion in Malibu, designed by renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando.
Purchased in September 2021, the home, which was once a stunning blend of glass and nature, has seen its value drop by $14 million due to the destruction.
“This is going to be my bomb shelter. This is going to be my Batcave,” Ye reportedly told a laborer during the destruction process, as revealed in an interview with The New Yorker.
But the mansion, which was finished by Tadao in 2013, was left abandoned and is now a skeletal shell, stripped of plumbing, electricity and its iconic clouded glass windows.
West never turned the home into the bomb shelter he once had great visions of. Now, the former architectural haven lost nearly $15 million in value due to West’s ambitious renovation project that never materialized.
In December 2023, West officially decided to part ways with the house and ambitious project altogether, initially listing it at $53 million — already $4.5 million less than he paid for it in 2021. In April, the home received a whopping $14 million price cut, and is currently on the market for $39 million. It is likely to drop even further in the coming months, sources told The Post.
Despite efforts to sell the mansion, including enlisting the help of Jason Oppenheim from “Selling Sunset,” the property remains for sale.
Ando’s once-pristine design has been completely gutted, leaving only gaping hollows where bedrooms and galleries once stood.
The blackened exterior, perched on stilts above the golden sands, stands in stark contrast to neighboring homes.
With his wife Bianca Censori and a team of “gonzo” laborers from New Jersey, Ye transformed the mansion into a structure befitting his album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.”
Censori, who holds degrees in architecture from the University of Melbourne, helped steer the radical overhaul.
The transformation included dismantling majestic staircases and replacing them with a foam slide.
Laborer Saxon, who worked long hours gutting the home, revealed to the New Yorker, “There was so much rebar in the concrete. It was absolutely brutal.” He described Ye’s vision as “simple fresh and cleeeeeean.”
Saxon recounted the extreme conditions, often sleeping on-site and surviving on Clif Bars and Red Bulls. “I stink, I haven’t showered for two days,” he told The New Yorker, describing the grueling work.
Saxon was tasked with painting over marble walls and tearing out expensive wooden cabinets, drastically altering the home’s original aesthetic.
The destruction extended to toppling chimneys, smashing marble bathroom walls and dismantling the glass balustrade. The house was stripped of its kitchen, bathrooms, AC, windows, light fixtures, heating, water and power, leaving it a barren shell.
But there came a time when Saxon had reached a breaking point, reluctant to change the floor-to-ceiling windows facing the ocean that had faded from the outside.
According to Saxon’s recollection, West demanded “If you don’t do what I asked you to do, I’m not going to be your friend anymore. You’re not going to work for me anymore. And you’re only going to see me on TV.” Saxon told Ye that he didn’t watch TV. “And then I walked the f–k out.”
Saxon is currently in an ongoing lawsuit with West over unpaid wages.
Before he ended up ditching the property entirely and listing the home, West’s vision for a “Batcave” included imposing ramps replacing stairways and the bomb shelter that he hoped would be the mansion’s standout feature.
Ye’s fascination with architecture isn’t new. He’s met with renowned architects like David Adjaye and Jacques Herzog and even rapped about Ando, whom he once visited with Kim Kardashian.
But according to architect Kulapat Yantrasast, “To be honest, he did not like the house — he did not like the interior,” he told the outlet.
Instead, this drastic attempt at a full redesign aligns with West’s history of bold and unconventional choices that have left the once iconic and historical property virtually unrecognizable and significantly devalued.
