Iconic mansion featured in HBO’s ‘Westworld’ hits market for $23.5 million

When Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Alicia Keys and her husband, record producer Kasim Dean (also known as Swizz Beatz), bought their ultra-luxury home, The Razor House, three-times designed Architectural Digest Top 100 designer and architect Wallace Cunningham described it as It is one of his best works. Today, other exclusive and premium Cunningham properties will soon be available for purchase in the coastal community of Encinitas in San Diego County.

Listed at $23.5 million, the property is about to break its own record for the most expensive home sold in Encinitas history.

In the great traditions of some of the 20th century’s greatest architects, the modern home was featured in an episode of HBO’s futuristic “Westworld” series.

Upon entering the house, the first thing visitors see is a crescent-shaped infinity pool, wrapped around a circular porch – hence the name Crescent House.

The home, which took three years to build, was completed in 2003. It was originally built for Bud Fisher, a prolific developer of San Diego’s Gaslamp neighborhood, for him and his wife Esther.

Perched at the top of the most ambitious street in this seaside community, Crescent House is as sculptural as it is architectural.

“This property is like a museum, it’s art,” said Compass’s Lisa Waltman, who co-inserted the house with Kelly Howard. “Our last sale on this oceanfront Main Street, Neptune Ave in Encinitas, closed a few weeks ago at 3,174 per square foot, and that was a 1974 home in pristine condition on a much smaller plot. 532 Neptune stands alone in its singularity. And its quality. At 0.43 acres, the plot is one of the largest on Neptune.”

With nearly 74 feet of ocean frontage, this modern masterpiece of concrete, glass, and steel overlooks the Pacific Ocean on one of Neptune’s largest plots (0.43 acres), creating the perfect blend of sheer luxury and indoor and outdoor coastal living. The stepped design and curved walls protect the central patio with a unique crescent-shaped infinity pool.

The main house includes the basic suite and two additional en-suite bedrooms, all with panoramic ocean views. Guestrooms offer an additional en-suite bedroom with a second room that can serve as an additional bedroom complete with Murphy pull-out beds.

The house is full of extra areas that can do double duty like a gym, yoga studio, media room, or office. Each bedroom and living areas offer endless ocean views, while some capture elevated views to the east as the lights twinkle in the night sky. Patios, verandas, terraces, and decks heighten the coastal outdoor life and sense of floating on the ocean.

“This house is upside down with all the main rooms upstairs,” Cunningham said. “The goal was to create a path to the top without realizing that you are actually going up. There are a series of ramps to climb, stairs and an elevator. Offers multiple journeys. Each path is designed to protect you from the street and nearby property and to open up exciting views under and across the building. The lower slope creates A wall protects the garden, porch and pool.The upper ramp leads you to walk in space all the way to the living room.From there, you can search through the house to the ocean.The design is not based on preconceived idea.It is truly a journey and information gathering.It is a statue of movement,space and light that influences your senses and your emotions.”

He added, “Designing is like being a detective, you go into a current client’s house and look at the books they read, the art they have, the music they like, and it triggers a reaction. You make magic out of the whole process. Buildings should be an image of their owner. It should be like An informative show—watching the day go by, watching the light change, watching the shadows grow and slowly fill in with artificial lighting in the evening. The whole fabric of life is embodied in these buildings.”

Waltman and Howard are very impressed with the wow factor that the home provides. “This property is like a museum,” Waltman said. “It’s art. Our last sale on this oceanfront Main Street, Neptune Ave in Encinitas, closed a few weeks ago at $3,174 per square foot, and that was an original 1974 home on a much smaller plot. 532 Neptune stands alone. In terms of its uniqueness and quality. At 0.43 acres, the plot is one of the largest on Neptune.”

For Encinitas, a coastal district in North San Diego County, Waltman says it’s the essence of heaven. “It has a very amazing coastline of varying heights and bluffs,” she explained. “Some coasts are quite flat in other states, while the California coast is dynamic. Many buyers are discovering our piece of paradise here.”

Howard added, “The value of the land alone is enormous in itself, and then you can tell how unique the house is with its artistry and architecture. And then you understand that you have something that sets it apart from any house on that block or in the zip code. With current building restrictions between the city and the Coastal Commission. You wouldn’t be able to build that house on this site today. It just can’t be replicated.”

The sellers, Eileen Quinn and Lance Williams, who currently live on exclusive Fisher Island in Miami, purchased the property in 2016 as a vacation home. The couple had been vacationing for four to five years in the beach town of Encinitas.

“We started looking for a vacation home in Encinitas because we loved the area,” Williams said. “We found this place, and it was incredible. When the listing agents asked me if I wanted to go see it, I said it was double my budget, which would never happen. But when I read the listing, I noticed Wallace Cunningham’s name on it.”

“Coincidentally, a friend of mine was the previous owner of the Razor House, so I had come across Wallace Cunningham’s house,” Williams added. “I decided to buy it in the first 60 seconds of walking around the house. Eileen hadn’t physically seen the house before we bought it. I told myself, I’ve been a Frank Lloyd Wright fan my whole life. The waterfall has been my dream. I can’t buy Fallingwater, so I guess I can tell.” This is the greatest thing I’ve ever done.”

Quinn agrees, saying that home isn’t just about living in a house, it’s living in an experience.

“You live in a piece of art, in the mind of a genius,” she said. “Most homes have a great view or two. In this house, everywhere you go, every place you sit has not only a view, but how the architecture is built, the views have been exploited to be as big, beautiful, and as private as possible.

“And not only do you have a view of the ocean, but a lot of those houses on Neptune, you have a tunnel view because of the house next door. The way Wallace formed this house, your vision expands like an outer triangle. You get views all day, 24 hours a day. This The house will ruin us forever along with any other house we live in. I wish everyone could experience it.”