Shocking photographs show how Kanye West bought and destroyed a $53 million beachfront mansion designed by a world-famous architect and replaced it with his twisted designs.
The rapper purchased the sprawling Malibu home in September 2021 after it was carefully created by revered Japanese architect Tadao Ando.
Ando’s designs are known for their pinpoint precision, focusing on glass exteriors that combine domestic life with nature.
But within months, Ye, who has made headlines for dressing his wife Bianca Censori in extravagant, flesh-baring outfits, attacked this vision with a sledgehammer and transformed it into a post-apocalyptic shell, which caused its value to plummet by $14 million.
‘This is going to be my air raid shelter. This will be my Batcave,” Ye told one of the workers employed to destroy the house from the inside out, as revealed in an interview with the New Yorker.
Ando’s Malibu building now consists of several alcoves where bedrooms, kitchens and a state-of-the-art gallery used to feature expensive works of art, marble trim, opulent wooden cabinetry and stunning ocean views.
The once impressive white mansion, completed in 2013, was left abandoned without doors or windows.
It has also had its plumbing and electricity removed and the opaque glass that once cast pale light across the gallery has been completely destroyed.
Ando’s building now consists of several alcoves where bedrooms, kitchens and a state-of-the-art gallery used to feature expensive works of art, ornate marble fixtures, opulent wooden cabinetry and stunning ocean views.
The blackened shell of the exterior, perched on stilts that raise it from the golden sand beach below, now stands out clearly against the surrounding houses.
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 befitting the name of his 2010 album, ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.’
Ye has long been interested in architecture, and Censori holds 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 better” to work with him on his rumored igloo-like developments in the desert called Yeezy Home.
The Carnival artist, who bought the house for $57 million at the end of 2021, is asking for at least $18 million less than he paid, after emptying the mansion in a problematic renovation attempt.
West and Censori are seen leaving Ty Dolla $ign’s birthday party in West Hollywood in April of this year.
The controversial rapper, who has since changed his name to Ye, was drawn to the house in part because of his appreciation for the world-renowned Japanese architect who designed the mansion: Tadao Ando (pictured).
He also met personally with several of the world’s most renowned architects, including David Adjaye, Toyo Ito and Jacques Herzog of the Herzog & de Meuron studio, according to the New Yorker.
And Ye has rapped about being “in Japan with Tadao Ando.” During his dating days with Kim Kardashian, the couple visited the Chichu Art Museum designed by Ando n Naoshima.
An American real estate agent who met Ando recently told the Wall Street Journal “It was like working with God.” This might have been part of the appeal for Ye, who had previously compared himself to “a god.”
In fact, Ye has drawn parallels between himself and Ando, calling him “the world’s greatest living architect” and “the Ye of all architects.”
But architect Kulapat Yantrasast, who spoke to Ye about the Malibu mansion, told the New Yorker: “To be honest, he didn’t like the house, he didn’t like the interior.”
Ye and Censori got to work ordering workers to dismantle the majestic, wide staircases that served as the backbone of the house, one inside and one outside, separated by a glass wall, replacing them with a foam slide.
The value of the three-story, 4,000-square-foot property has fallen from $53 million to $39 million under Ye’s reign of terror.
‘This is going to be my air raid shelter. This is going to be my Batcave,’ Ye told one of the workers employed to destroy the house from the inside out, as revealed in an interview with the New Yorker.
The Grammy-winning artist’s career has foundered amid a torrent of anti-Semitic comments he has made since the fall of 2022. Photographed in March in Los Angeles.
Tony Saxon, a New Jersey man, was among the workers called in to transform the property from an architectural feat into a corpse of a house complete with Ye’s ‘batcave’ bomb shelter.
The team began by dismantling the interior of the house. Saxon told the New Yorker that he worked such long days that he found himself sleeping on a mattress on the floor inside, supporting himself on Clif Bars and Red Bulls.
He was tasked with painting the “beautiful black and white marble walls” and expensive wooden fixtures with gray paint to match the concrete walls. Later, they asked him to completely tear out the wooden cabinets.
Saxon said he was sometimes awakened just hours after sleeping by a call from Censori giving him another job that needed to be completed immediately.
On another occasion, she called him back to the house shortly after he abandoned her. “I stink, I haven’t showered in two days,” she recalled to the New Yorker. “I’m a lunatic.”
She eventually met Ye, and although she never listened to his music because she prefers artists from the 1960s, Saxon said she fell in love with him immediately.
So when Ye asked him to dismantle the rest of the house while praising the impressive stamina and skills he had shown so far, he agreed.
Saxon shared videos with the New Yorker that show him helping to knock down one of the chimneys, while another shows someone breaking the marble bathroom walls with a hammer.
Along with another employee, Saxon also got to work breaking the glass balustrade with a sledgehammer and hammering a hot tub into oblivion.
“There was a lot of rebar in the concrete,” Saxon told the New Yorker. “It was absolutely brutal.”
Little by little, you also tasked Saxon with completely emptying the house of all utilities, including the kitchen, bathrooms, air conditioning, windows, lamps, heating, water and electricity, including removing cables and the wiring.
“He wanted it all to be his doing,” Saxon told the New Yorker. You wrote to Saxon in a text message: ‘Let’s go…’. . . Simple, fresh and clean.’
Saxon said they agreed to a rate of $20,000 a week with additional funds to pay colleagues and purchase materials. At the time, Ye was 44 years old and her wealth was estimated to be nearly $2 billion.
The house was left in a skeletal state, with the waves of the nearby ocean audible through the holes where the windows once stood. A dark stain marks the spot where a hot tub used to be.
The most prominent feature is now Ye’s ‘Batcave’ air raid shelter and the large, imposing ramps where the stairs used to be.
Ye’s neighbors in Malibu told TMZ that his mansion was “left to rot” and that they hadn’t seen “anyone around there for many months.”
The interior of the house appears to be falling apart and the metal railings are rusting after being exposed to salt air, wind and water.
The mansion has been left empty, as seen in new photos (pictured) The windows overlooking the sea have been removed, leaving that side open to all the elements.
The Grammy-winning artist, whose career has foundered amid a torrent of anti-Semitic comments he has made since the fall of 2022, attracted Selling Sunset real estate agent Jason Oppenheim, 46, in his effort to sell the house late last year, according to TMZ.
Meanwhile, Saxon filed a lawsuit alleging that he was never properly paid for his grueling work, which remains an open dispute.
The Malibu mansion now stands as a seaside eyesore and a reminder of a time you might prefer to forget.