Tadao Ando seems to be the A-list’s new architectural darling. Beyoncé and Jay-Z are the latest to shell out an exorbitant sum of straight cash for one of the Pritzker Prize-winning architect’s few 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 television producer William Bell and his wife Maria commissioned from Ando in 1999. After building the architect’s vision 15 years later, the Bells used it as both a home and gallery for their famed art collection, most notably their collection of Jeff Koons.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s purchase of the monumental home marks the most expensive residential real-estate deal in California history. It is also the second-most expensive home price in U.S. history; Citadel founder Kenneth Griffin’s penthouse on New York’s Billionaires’ Row went for $238 million in 2019—although, to split hairs, that is an apartment, not a house. Beyoncé and Jay-Z even got a deal on their new digs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, paying $95 million under the original ask.
Born in 1941 in Osaka, Ando left a boxing career for architecture after encountering Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel in Japan. Known for his ability to transmute concrete from industrial to poetic and his “haiku” effect by engaging negative space as an architectural element, Ando recently envisioned the minimalist exhibition design for “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” and continues to inspire the likes of Daniel Tyree Gaitor-Lomack and Charlotte Taylor. He won the Pritzker in 1995, received his first American commission from Tom Ford, and even designed the Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth, as well as the entrance to the sculpture garden at MoMA.
If anyone wants to outdo Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s buy, though, they’ll have to compete with more than price alone. The all-concrete home centers on sweeping windows harmonizing artificial and natural light—all the better to drink in those multimillion-dollar views, while still lending the home’s sleek lines that signature Ando buoyancy. Azure pools (plural) punctuate the outdoor space, with access to a private beach.
Given that the Knowles-Carter couple amassed their fortune in no small part through Jay-Z’s investment in blue-chip artists like Warhol and Basquiat, the property offers ample room to let their own collection shine.