REVEALED: Kanye’s West blueprint for destruction of $60M mansion created by mysterious ‘God of architecture’ – as his dark and twisted designs are finally released
Shocking photos show how Kanye West bought a $53 million beachfront mansion designed by a world-famous architect, destroyed it and replaced it with his twisted designs.
The rapper purchased the sprawling Malibu home in September 2021 after it was carefully designed by respected Japanese architect Tadao Ando.
Ando’s designs are known for their utmost precision with a focus on glass exteriors that combine domestic life with nature.
But within a few months, Ye β who made headlines for dressing his wife Bianca Censori in bizarre and flesh-baring outfits β took a sledgehammer to this vision and transformed it into a post-apocalyptic shell, increasing its value by $14 million plummeted.
‘This will be my fallout shelter. This will be my Batcave,β Ye told one of the workers tasked with destroying the house from the inside, as revealed in an interview with the New Yorker.
Ando’s Malibu building now consists of several gaping cavities where bedrooms, kitchens and an avant-garde gallery once offered expensive artwork, ornate marble fittings, lavish wooden cabinetry and sweeping ocean views.
The once beautiful white mansion β completed in 2013 β has been abandoned without doors or windows.
It has also been stripped of plumbing and electricity, and the clouded glass that once cast a pale light over the gallery has been completely stripped.
Ando’s building now consists of several gaping cavities where once bedrooms, kitchens and an avant-garde gallery offered expensive works of art, ornate marble fittings, lavish wooden cabinetry and stunning ocean views.
The exterior’s blackened exterior, atop stilts that raise it from the golden sandy beach below, now stands out starkly against the surrounding homes.
With the help of Censori, who hired some self-described “gonzo” workers from New Jersey, he set out to destroy the mansion and create something to match his 2010 album name, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.”
Ye has long had an interest in architecture, and Censori has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in architecture from the University of Melbourne.
The rapper once invited people he described as “architects and industrial designers who want to make the world a better place” to collaborate with him on his rumored desert igloo-style developments called Yeezy home.
The Carnival artist, who bought the house for $57 million in late 2021, is asking for at least $18 million less than what he paid, after gutting the mansion during an arduous renovation effort
West and Censori leave Ty Dolla $ign’s birthday party in West Hollywood in April this year
The controversial rapper, who has since been renamed Ye, was drawn to the house in part because of his appreciation for the globally renowned Japanese architect who masterminded the mansion – Tadao Ando (pictured)
According to the New Yorker, he also personally met with some of the world’s most renowned architects, including David Adjaye, Toyo Ito and Jacques Herzog of the firm Herzog & de Meuron.
And Ye has talked about being “in Japan with Tadao Ando.” In his days of dating Kim Kardashian, the couple visited the Chichu Art Museum, designed by Ando n Naoshima.
An American real estate agent Ando recently met told me Wall Street Journal ‘it was like working with God’. This could have been part of the draw for Ye, who previously compared himself to “a god.”
In fact, Ye has drawn parallels between himself and Ando, ββcalling him “the world’s greatest living architect” and “the Ye of all architects.”
But architect Kulapat Yantrasast, who discussed the Malibu mansion with Ye, told it New Yorker: ‘To be honest, he didn’t like the house, he didn’t like the interior.’
Ye and Censori went to work, ordering workers to replace the majestic wide stairs that served as the spine of the house, one inside and one outside, separated by a glass wall, with a foam slide.
The value of the 4,000 square meter, three-storey property has fallen from $53 million to $39 million under Ye’s reign of terror.
‘This will be my fallout shelter. This will be my Batcave,β Ye told one of the workers tasked with destroying the house from the inside, as revealed in an interview with the New Yorker.
The Grammy-winning artist’s career has hit a slump following a barrage of anti-Semitic comments he has made since the fall of 2022. Pictured in March in LA
Tony Saxon, a New Jersey man, was among the workers they called on to transform the property from an architectural gem into a cadaver of a house, complete with Ye’s “batcave” fallout shelter.
The team started by dismantling the interior of the house. Saxon told the New Yorker that he worked such long hours that he found himself sleeping on a mattress on the floor indoors, supporting himself with Clif Bars and Red Bulls.
He was commissioned to repaint the “beautiful black and white marble walls” and expensive wooden furniture with gray paint to match the concrete walls. Later he was asked to completely remove the wooden cabinets.
Saxon said he would sometimes be woken after just a few hours of sleep by a call from Censori instructing him to do another job that needed to be done immediately.
On another occasion, she summoned him back home not long after he left the house. βI stink, I haven’t showered in two days,β he recalled to the New Yorker. ‘I’m crazy.’
He eventually met Ye, and although he has never heard his music because he prefers artists from the 1960s, Saxon said he immediately took a liking to him.
So when Ye asked him to dismantle the rest of the house, praising the impressive endurance and skills he had shown so far, he agreed.
Saxon shared videos with the New Yorker showing him knocking over one of the chimneys, while another shows someone smashing the bathroom’s marble walls with a hammer.
Together with another employee, Saxon also worked to smash the glass railing with a sledgehammer and blast a hot tub into oblivion.
βThere was so much rebar in the concrete,β Saxon told the New Yorker. “It was absolutely brutal.”
You also gradually instructed Saxon to completely strip the house of all utilities – including the kitchen, bathrooms, air conditioning, windows, light fixtures, heating, water and power – and even remove the cables and wiring.
βHe wanted everything to be his own work,β Saxon told the New Yorker. You wrote in one text to Saxon: ‘Let’s go. . . Simply fresh and clear.’
Saxon said they agreed on a compensation of $20,000 a week, with extra money to pay colleagues and buy materials. At the time, Ye was 44 and his net worth was estimated at nearly $2 billion.
The house was left in a skeletal state, with the surf of the nearby ocean audible through the gaps where windows had once been. A dark spot marks the spot where a hot tub used to be.
The striking feature now is Ye’s ‘Batcave’ air raid shelter and large imposing ramps where the stairs used to be.
Ye’s neighbors in Malibu told TMZ that his mansion was “on the sidelines” and that they “hadn’t seen anyone in months.”
The inside of the house appears to be crumbling and the metal railings are rusting after being exposed to the salty air, wind and water
The mansion has remained bare, as can be seen in new photos (photo). The floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the sea have been removed, leaving that side open to all the elements
The Grammy-winning artist, whose career has fallen amid a barrage of anti-Semitic comments he has made since the fall of 2022, brought in Selling Sunset real estate agent Jason Oppenheim, 46, in his attempt to sell the house late last year. according to TMZ.
Meanwhile, Saxon filed a lawsuit claiming he was never properly paid for his grueling work, which remains an open dispute.
The Malibu mansion is now an eyesore – and a reminder of a time you might rather forget.