Pacific Palisades spec mansion by Tavangarian stars in “Succession”

20K sf home sold for $83M in 2021 to 26-year-old tech billionaire Austin Russell

Sarah Snook, Ardie Tavangarian (Photography by Claudette Barius/HBO, Photography by Kevin Scanlon)
Sarah Snook, Ardie Tavangarian (Photography by Claudette Barius/HBO, Photography by Kevin Scanlon)

Season four of “Succession,” the last for the HBO drama hit, features a mega mansion inhabited by a media mogul in the Santa Monica Mountains. The starring house, in fact, is in Pacific Palisades.

In real life, the six-bedroom, 18-bathroom house known as the San Onofre estate was built in 2020 by developer Ardie Tavangarian at 1601 San Onofre Drive, Architectural Digest reported.

1601 San Onofre Drive, Pacific Palisades (1601sanonofre.com)
1601 San Onofre Drive, Pacific Palisades (1601sanonofre.com)

After a brief lull on the rental market for $350,000 per month, it sold in December 2021 to 26-year-old tech billionaire Austin Russell for $83 million.

The 20,000-square-foot hilltop mansion has a master suite that could serve as its own apartment, plus five guest suites, countless features and a striking silhouette.

A large curved wall that supports the home is made of board-formed concrete, a process by which concrete is made to look beautifully textured, often using wood. In this case, sand was mixed in to create the perfect natural-looking shade.

“If you take a piece of this concrete and walk around the Santa Monica mountains, you think it just came from the earth,” said Tavangarian in AD’s 2021 video tour of the home. It has a hidden car elevator, sterling views of the Pacific Ocean and a man cave/home theater stocked with 3,000 bottles of wine.

An upstairs master suite has a one-of-a-kind retractable roof for unobstructed views of the night sky. For chillier nights, the ceiling also includes a custom projection screen that displays movies to occupants of the bed, according to Dirt.com.

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Tavangarian bought the one-acre promontory property in 2013 for $7.3 million. 

The house, on a quiet cul-de-sac in the Palisades’ Riviera, overlooks L.A.’s Westside, sweeping over Will Rogers State Park and across the Pacific. 

It has a 20-seat outdoor cinema, a kitchen designed by Nobu, an infinity pool, car gallery and separate massage room. Outside, the property has a $2 million curved wall that seemingly rises directly out of the infinity pool and a spa capable of serving a dozen soakers.

It’s a fitting setting for Shiv, Kendall and Roman in the season four premiere of “Succession.”

Inside, fan favorite Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) is yelling at a Zoom meeting on TV, in a living room surrounded by high glass walls, some fully open to the outdoors, while gazing out on the infinity pool and sweeping mountain views beyond.

In June, Tavangarian sold a seven-bed, 11-bath estate in Pacific Palisades home for $28 million.

— Dana Bartholomew

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