Spec developer and Palisades architect Ardie Tavangarian has sold a 20,000 sq.-ft, six-bedroom mansion with 18 bathrooms on one acre in the upper Riviera section of Pacific Palisades for $83 million. The only pricier sale this year in California was for an $87 million home in Malibu.
According to Dirt, the unknown buyer had made his fortune through cryptocurrency. Forbes magazine estimates that there are at least 12 official cryptocurrency billionaires worldwide – and now one will have an official residence here on San Onofre.
The original home was a Spanish Colonial-style by legendary architect Cliff May, before it was torn down and replaced by Tavangarian, who is the founder and CEO of AYRA GROUP.
According to Real Deal, one can gain access to the main bedroom with a retinal scanner, and the room has a retractable roof. Luckily, if you don’t want to leave the room, the ceiling can also act as a projection screen.
The house had once been marketed as an $88 million pocket listing and was also briefly offered for rent at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic ($350,000 per month).
One might consider this a bargain because it also has two panic rooms, a fully stocked wine cellar, spa and movie theater. According to Luxury Architecture, “A large garage doubles as an events venue, with a car turntable that can be transformed into a dance floor.”
The property was listed by Williams & Williams Estate Group.
Ardie Tavangarian
According to Real Deal, “Tavangarian’s last big sale was of an even bigger mansion in Bel-Air to a buyer from China for $75 million. He had listed the property in late 2018 for $88 million.
Last summer, Tavangarian bought four neighboring properties in Bel-Air from Elon Musk, with plans to combine those lots.
According to the ARYA Facebook page, Tavangarian was born in Shiraz, Iran, and came to the U.S. in 1973 at the age of 15. He moved to California from Michigan in 1977, and in 1979 completed his Architectural Degree from the Southern California Institute of Architecture. In 1981, he started his own firm, ARYA.
Tavangarian and his wife, Tania, moved to the Palisades in 1991. They have four daughters, Sade, Shana, and twins Emila and Nila.
When his children attended Village School, Tavangarian and the ARYA GROUP were in charge of the school’s two-story expansion project at the corner of La Cruz and Alma Real. The family helped fund several buildings at Harvard-Westlake. He and his wife have been annual donors of the University of Southern California and its Iranian Studies program.
As a trustee of the Farhang Foundation, an organization that promotes Iranian Arts and Culture in the United States, he played a major role in the development of the Freedom Sculpture project. About 75,000 people came to celebrate the reveal of the public statue, which is on display on Santa Monica Boulevard in L.A.
Tavangarian is a 2018 Ellis Island Medal of Honor recipient.
The family has supported the International Society for Children with Cancer (ISCC), the PAAIA (Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans) and The Midnight Mission, a nonprofit which helps people experiencing homelessness find self-sufficiency.
The Tavangarians have also donated to the Windward Fund, an organization committed to building a stronger environmental conservation movement and Heal the Bay.
The family established one of the few vineyards in the Los Angeles area with the wine label of “ARYA,” adjacent to their home on upper Bienveneda.
Tearing down a Cliff May house to build another over-built unnecessary monstrosity is tragic.