Kanye West Buys a Malibu Home by Tadao Ando, and Other News

The Design Dispatch offers expertly written and essential news from the design world crafted by our dedicated team. Think of it as your cheat sheet for the day in design delivered to your inbox before you’ve had your coffee. Subscribe now. 

Have a news story our readers need to see? Submit it here.

Kanye West buys a $57.3 million concrete Malibu home designed by Tadao Ando.

The Japanese architect Tadao Ando has designed very few homes in the U.S., but Kanye West is now a proud owner of one. Located in Malibu, the 4,000 square-foot ocean-view property exudes the Pritzker Prize winner’s minimalist style with a surfeit of concrete and clean lines. The specs: three uniquely designed floors with as many ensuite guest bedrooms and a middle floor meant for communal gatherings. The price tag? A cool $57.3 million.

In the suburbs of Chicago, an early Frank Lloyd Wright house by is slated for restoration.

The Frederick Bagley House in Hinsdale, Chicago, has escaped demolition under its new preservation-minded owners. Listed at a market price of $1.3 million, the 1894 residence underwent several adjustments during its lifetime and was slated for demolition despite its contributions to architectural history. A campaign spearheaded by the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy and the Hinsdale Historic Preservation Commission and Landmarks Illinois sought to preserve Hinsdale’s only Wright-designed structure and caught the attention of buyers Safina Uberoi and Lukas Ruecker, who seek to provide the Dutch Colonial–style home with a facelift in homage to the late architect. Preservationists hope that this act of conservation would spur policy changes to protect heritage homes from the wrecking ball. 

Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Abu Dhabi announces an opening date in four years. 

Following architectural and pandemic setbacks, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi designed by Frank Gehry has announced an opening date in 2025. The outpost will offer the museum’s largest exhibition space yet, spanning 320,000 square feet on the waterfront of Saadiyat Island. The Guggenheim also announced a revamped board of trustees predicated on diversity in an effort to broaden its audience. The appointments of the first chief culture and inclusion officer Ty Woodfolk in addition to deputy director and senior curator Naomi Beckwith in its New York site, the Guggenheim forwards its global art footprint with an emphasis on how “we can re-center where the stories of art are told,” as noted by Beckwith. 

Recent layoffs at Casper may have contributed to the brand’s plummeted share value.

Following a chain of recent hires, including the appointment of a CMO, CTO, and COO, the mattress company conducted a round of layoffs as part of an overall restructuring. Although eliminated employees were given compensation packages, some parties attribute Casper’s dismissal to Apple’s software update, iOS 14.5, that hinders apps from tracking user data without consent. Nevertheless, Casper streamlining its retail and operational teams comes at a price. Initially, the brand’s IPO was priced at $12 per share, but the closure of physical stores and employee discharge placed the share price at $5 after pandemic recovery efforts. 

Christie’s auctions a collection from Radiohead album cover artist Stanley Donwood.

Stanley Donwood has been the backbone of Radiohead’s album covers since 1996. Now, his dystopian scenes are slated for auction at Christie’s starting at $13,810. Donwood submitted a six part series that’s an extension of Radiohead’s 2001 Kid A album artwork under Christie’s post-war and contemporary art sale that runs Oct. 5-19. By crafting apocalyptic landscapes using mixed media and digital edits from physical canvases, Donwood highlights his affinity for ominous imagery. “They are very textural—painted with the edge of my boot, knives, and sticks. They are visceral works,” says the artist. “I thought, ‘I have these massive paintings I painted 20 years ago. It would be really, really great to show them to people.’” 

Google co-founder Larry Page’s mansion-office succumbs to a mysterious fire. 

Known to own basically an entire block in Old Palo Alto, Google co-founder Larry Page’s mansion in California has gone up in flames. Authorities responding to a three-alarm fire recorded no injuries or fatalities and have yet to disclose the cause of the blaze. The incident, however, sparked a public callout on local budgetary allocations and deeper questions circle the findings beneath the ash, namely the discovery of the $10 million residence’s covert operation as a small-scale office for Google employees. Answers to how many other sites host a similar setup and their purpose remains to be seen.

Today’s attractive distractions:

Lil Nas X remixes Jean Paul Gaultier’s signature mesh top with tinges of gothic glamour.

Ginori 1735 teams with Luca Nichetto for fragrances inspired by Catherine de Medici.

Meet the New York bartender who quit cocktails to become, of all things, a mortician.

Follow these simple new rules for dining out to become a five-star restaurant guest.