Within the first two minutes of Succession season four, a drone shot of a home perched high in the Santa Monica mountains sets the scene for the final installment of the hit HBO drama. From an aerial view, we see a car climb the long driveway toward a home that looks part modern mega mansion, part pirate ship.
Inside, fan favorite character Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) is yelling at a Zoom meeting on the television, in a living room surrounded by high glass walls, some fully open to the outdoors, looking out on an infinity pool and sweeping mountain views beyond that. The fact that his siblings Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Shiv (Sarah Snook) enter briskly, the latter launching digs at her little brother without so much as a second glance up at the 22-foot ceilings in the foyer, is a reminder that these characters are beyond wealthy. Lest we forget, these are the children of fictional media mogul Logan Roy, who Forbes estimates is worth a whopping (fictional) $18 billion. (The publication also tallies up the family’s real estate holdings at $345 million.)
From the season four premiere (out on March 26), it isn’t quite clear who the home belongs to, but the siblings are there to plot their next move after season three left them on the outs with their father as he planned to sell Waystar Royco to Lukas Mattson (Alexander Skarsgård). In real life, the six bedroom, 18 bathroom house known as the San Onofre estate was built by real estate developer Ardie Tavangarian in 2020, and after a brief stint on the rental market for $350,000 per month, it sold for $83 million in 2021, allegedly to a tech CEO in his 20s.
At 20,000 square feet, this over-the-top property encompasses an owner’s suite that could serve as its own apartment, plus five guest suites, countless amenities, and a striking silhouette. The large curved wall that supports the home structurally and forms its façade (though which side of this building is the front could be up for interpretation) 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.
This element adds architectural gravitas and evokes a wooden ship—which you’d think was taking on water from the way Shiv, Kendall, and Roman frantically hash out their plans inside. Much of this takes place in one sitting area near the onyx-swathed show kitchen, frankly leaving the best parts of the home unexplored. Luxury is wasted on the rich.
Instead of sweating about Logan’s plans and just what the heck Shiv’s husband Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) might be up to, the Roy kids could have taken a dip in one of multiple pools on the property, watched a movie in the 18-seat theater, sipped cocktails in a bar room with a backlit blue onyx bar, worked out in the indoor-outdoor gym, or relaxed in the spa, which is accessed via a hidden door and features a massage room and side-by-side cold and hot plunge pools.
By the middle of the episode, they’re headed out on a private jet to do more wheeling and dealing. If they’d stayed the night, one of them could’ve shacked up in the main suite, which not only has a living room referred to by a realtor as the “pajama lounge,” but also an adjoining zen garden complete with a cedar spa and a 200-pound bronze Buddha from Thailand, as well as a terrace with a glass pool and unique greenhouse. In the suite’s onyx-clad bathroom, there is a steam shower with a fireplace in it, and [drumroll] in the owner’s bedroom the entire ceiling retracts like a gargantuan sunroof for stargazing.
Unfortunately for Shiv, Kendall, and Roman, they are consumed with finding a lifeboat to board before their father does. As we’ve seen on this show for three seasons now, the characters don’t often stop and appreciate their surroundings, so as the fourth and final season progresses, we’ll just have to do it for them.
