The residence has a striking look, perched high above the Pacific, and it seems plucked from another world. Courtesy of Sotheby's International Realty It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s … the Aviator!
An eye-catching California residence that looks like it could have been dropped by intelligent aliens onto one of the highest mountain peaks in Malibu — or birthed by the mountain itself — is back on the market for $6.49 million, Gimme Shelter can exclusively reveal.
The Aviator home, which soars with red wings, is built with sharp lines and angles — and includes a triangular pool. It is equal parts work of art, meditative muse and inspirational dwelling.
First on the market asking $9.2 million in 2024, the steel-and-glass home at 2540 Cayman Rd. was asking $7.5 million last year.
At 3,100 square feet, it sits on 2.23 acres and looks out serenely over the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific. But don’t be fooled: Inside, the home is a cacophony of color and hidden surprise that comes together in harmony.
There are many aspects about this house that make it special. But it’s the way the geometric shapes — triangles, circles, squares and rectangles — are echoed throughout the home and the outdoor patio. Cut glass windows and patterns; wing-shaped sculptures on walls; and Mondrian-style colors of strong reds, bold yellows and ocean-to-pool blues help deliver a totality of vision — all from designer/artist Amit Apel of the award-winning Malibu-based Apel Design Inc.
Apel bought the land for $865,000 in 2021 and built the Aviator House on the site of another historic home: the Copper Dome, which had been destroyed in the Woolsey Fire of 2018. The Copper Dome house was used by pilots flying into Los Angeles International Airport as a strategic marker, and Apel decided to create a new residence that would in part honor the former property’s history.
Despite its look-at-me attention-demanding structure, the two-story Aviator House seamlessly, if somewhat incongruously, fits in with the landscape.
An open chef’s kitchen pops with shots of yellow at the breakfast bar, and an adjacent living area echoes the kitchen with sneak peeks of yellow in its custom seating.
Design details include glass walls, cement floors, modern finishes and an indoor-outdoor vibe.
There’s also an outdoor kitchen, a covered patio — with an outdoor screening area to watch movies — and that triangular pool. Because the home is in a fire zone, it was not designed with standard fireplaces, which aren’t allowed any longer due to code and fire safety issues. So instead it has a biofuel safe outdoor sunken fire pit — encouraging guests to enjoy a warm “fire” that is safely surrounded in concrete and sunk into the ground.
The design also comes with “off-grid capability, solar integration and advanced smart home systems,” according to the listing — from Ernie Carswell and Kendra Wilkinson, of Sotheby’s International Realty.
