In 2019, Alicia Keys with her husband Kasseem Dean (also known as Swizz Beatz), acquired “Razor House”, a mansion located in La Jolla, California; rumored to have served as the inspiration for Tony Stark’s mansion in the Iron Man movies.
According Architectural Digest (AD), the house has been called an “architectural masterpiece” and “America’s coolest house.”
Home
Built in 2007, it contains floor-to-ceiling windows, white concrete, large walkways, manicured patios, and floating stairs.
Measuring 11,000 square feet and designed by Wallace E. Cunningham, the mansion is located on the west coast of the United States with views of the Pacific Ocean.
Cunningham told AD that “every wall in this house, every part of it, is sculpture.”
The acquisition
Dean explained to Architectural Digest that he had had the house as a screen saver for more than eight years and that when he got the call that it was for sale he was elated.
"When your screensaver comes to life, it’s insanely crazy"he exclaimed in the interview.
However, he was nervous that his wife would not want to move because she grew up in New York and loved the city.
However, Keys decided to move into the house while in a meditation session while visiting the mansion one weekend.
“At that moment, I felt like I was witnessing a beautiful metaphor, and I never wanted to forget how infinite we are and how the unimaginable can happen. That’s what it did for me. I was taken"he said explaining the moment.
After the purchase they decided to redesign it under the command of Kelly Behun, who was contacted directly by Dean.
Also, as busy as he was, Swizz Beatz was a great contributor to the project, Behun told AD.
“He lives and breathes that house; understands every square inch of it. Working from afar would normally be an obstacle, [pero] I was so in tune with what I knew I wanted, and that’s why it all fell into place ", he stated.
"It’s about keeping the colors warm because this house is the home of ‘Iron Man’"Beatz said of the house’s color palette and aesthetics.
“That means that, in a way, it is industrial. It can get a little cold and we wanted to warm it up and bring the energies with the rugs and the different shades that we purposely choose to make it feel like a home and not just a sculpture, but unite them both. “
On the Architectural Digest YouTube channel you can find the tour of the mansion.
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