The glass, steel and concrete structure by contemporary architect Ed Niles incorporates elements of the traditional design philosophy and the symbolism of the lucky No. 8
4 min
A contemporary home designed with Feng Shui principles in Malibu that once asked $57.5 million will be auctioned in June.
The architectural home lies on the Pacific Coast Highway in Western Malibu, a surf spot known for its pristine beaches and celebrity owners. Concierge Auctions, which is handling the sale, expects bidding to open between $10 million and $19 million.
The long, narrow lot is about four-fifths of an acre and boasts 75 feet of private beachfront. Owner Wei-Tzuoh Chen, a California-based nephrologist, purchased the property in 2003 with his wife, Carrie Chen, for around $2.25 million. They originally intended to knock down the existing house and develop four condo units but then decided to keep the location for themselves as a vacation property.
“I’ve lived in many beachfront houses in different parts of Southern California, but this is the finest sandy beach I’ve ever seen,” he said, distinguishing it from places where the water comes right up to the house during high tide.
The couple spent over six years building an 8,206-square-foot glass, steel and concrete residence with Malibu architect Ed Niles, who Chen said “spoke to his taste as a contemporary, not modern, architect.”
A native of Taiwan, Chen wanted to incorporate elements of Feng Shui into Niles’s signature futuristic design, inspired by the Guggenheim in New York City and the Broad in Los Angeles.
“I wanted a mini-museum in which to display my collection of Chinese antiques in a futuristic setting,” he said.
The property was previously listed in March 2023 at $57.5 million by Madison Hildebrand, president and CEO of the Malibu Life Team (and star of Bravo TV’s “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles”), along with Jennifer Chrisman of Compass, Wendy Wong of Treelane Realty Group and Katherine Quach of Treeline Realty & Investment. The agents are collaborating with Concierge Auctions, which will launch the auction on its online marketplace in mid-June. It is currently listed at $42 million.
The residence juxtaposes organic with geometric shapes; curved and straight lines mingle inside and out.
As shown in an aerial photo, it consists of a series of circles, semi-circles, triangles and rectangles. “There are basically eight different-shaped structures in a configuration,” Chen said, explaining that the number eight symbolises good fortune in Chinese numerology.
Integrating Feng Shui elements was accomplished in numerous ways.
“Feng means ‘wind,’ and the idea is to have air flowing throughout,” Chen said. “Based on a survey of the site, Niles designed it so that when you open the door on the ocean side, the breeze will circulate into every area of the house.”
He added that the architect also designed the house around the sun’s movement, capturing the ever-changing light via over 45 custom skylights. “The architectural perspective of the house shifts every minute of the day.”
Feng Shui also refers to the flow of movement, which starts from the street-side security gate, where a short driveway descends to the house below. “The concept of the Chinese home is to be unassuming from the front and then to provide a wow factor when you walk inside,” he explained.
Steps lead down to the glass-walled entrance with a soaring steel-paned glass ceiling. This spills into a cavernous space framed by massive architectural concrete walls and a floating bridge overhead. Two expansive sets of built-in stairs lead in different directions—one connects with a floating staircase to an upper level. The other flows into the ground floor living area and kitchen, with views to the horizon on two sides. A wall of frameless glass doors opens onto the back patio and an outdoor dining area.
Two separate upper-level spaces—one rounded, the other a triangle—jut out over the patio, creating covered sitting areas below. The round space comprises the primary suite, featuring a wood-panelled sleeping area and a marble bathroom with a cylindrical Japanese stainless-steel tub overlooking the ocean. A 50-foot bridge and short flights of stairs lead to three more bedrooms with private decks.
“Every split level has its own wing with an en-suite bedroom, so they are private with no shared walls, and everyone gets to take advantage of the view,” Hildebrand said. “The guest house is separate with its own private outdoor space.”
Two marine-coated red steel sculptures in the back play on the shapes and number themes. One is an immersive red triangular sculpture that doubles as an enclosure for a small dining table; the other is a humanistic red figure-eight piece. Chen confirmed that both are part of the sale, as is a larger-than-life green butterfly sculpture at the entrance.
Inlaid rectilinear stepping stones cut a diagonal across the lawn to the sandy beach, bordered by large rocks. Although it is technically open to the public, Hildebrand said it is not easily accessible or widely known.
Beyond the interiors, the outdoor entertaining spaces—counting an in-ground fire pit with stone crescent benches—can accommodate up to 100 guests. Six uncovered parking spaces are available in addition to a two-car garage.
“It also has a tide pool where you can see sea urchins, mussels and other marine life on the rocks in ankle-deep water at low tide, which is also very rare here,” Chen said. “That’s the reason I chose this lot over others. It’s such a unique location.”
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Georgetown agent Jamie Peva blends history and real estate on Instagram, turning local stories into a powerful sales strategy.
5 min
On a recent morning in Georgetown—Washington, D.C.’s oldest neighborhood—real-estate agent Jamie Peva strode down leafy N Street, brimming with historical tidbits.
Jackie Kennedy once lived on the street, he said. So did Ben Bradlee, former executive editor of the Washington Post, along with a former Miss America and a powerful U.S. Senator. Bradlee’s widow, author Sally Quinn, and Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, own stately homes there.
“I’ve seen a picture of Lyndon Johnson coming out of this house,” said Peva, passing a Federal-style brick mansion. “Also, the Beatles went to a lawn party here.”
Peva, a 60-year-old agent with Washington Fine Properties, has sold Georgetown real estate for over three decades, often traversing the neighborhood by bicycle. Of the roughly 2,500 houses in the historic neighborhood, he has been involved in the sale of 460, he estimated. A self-styled historian of the neighborhood, he knows stories behind its houses and their owners going back generations.
With a knack for lively storytelling, he shares his knowledge with some 37,500 Instagram followers, who have made Peva—sporting the bow ties he has worn since boarding school—an unlikely social-media influencer. Many of his followers are locals, and most have no plans to buy or sell real estate—until they do. It is then, according to Peva, that his spirited reels bring him to mind.
“It’s the digital version of a refrigerator magnet,” he said.
After Peva’s first video in November 2023, his eponymous Instagram account sparked a 10% increase in sales volume in the first year, and another 20% the next, he estimated. “It’s been very good for business, there is no question about it,” he said.
But Peva’s posts have also made him a local celebrity. As he walked down N street, the driver of a Mercedes station wagon slowed down to honk and wave. A lady walking a large dark gray dog stopped to ask what he was filming that day (a reel about a Colonial-era bottling plant.) Peva knew the dog from walking his two springers, Jumpy and Peggy-O, in the neighborhood.
“I need to make a video about the pooches of Georgetown,” he mused.
A growing number of real-estate agents now use social media to sell, and some have millions of followers with reels featuring ultraluxury pads, selling tips or reality TV-style reports on their daily lives. While Peva posts about his listings—and sometimes those of other agents—he mostly focuses on Georgetown history, local businesses and community events, saying his goal is to benefit both his business and the neighborhood.
“If we don’t find something genuinely interesting and worth sharing, we won’t do it,” said Peva’s daughter, Violet Peva, a New York social-media strategist who films, edits and posts his reels. “We cover many topics, not just real-estate information.”
Peva is originally from Connecticut, but has lived in Georgetown for over 30 years, currently in a cottage-style house with a white picket fence. Over the years, Georgetown has changed. The Georgetown Set, a powerful group of Cold War-era residents whose Sunday-night potluck dinners are said to have swayed U.S. policy, has long faded away. The community is still home to high-profile Washingtonians, including a Republican senator and several cabinet members. But it increasingly also attracts technology and finance executives, according to Peva. He now routinely signs nondisclosure agreements, ensuring privacy for wealthy clients. The shift has made him rethink his marketing approach.
“For years, a big part of our Georgetown business was made up of people who maintained a low profile,” he said. Real-estate agents were similarly low-key. Today, curb appeal is more important, he said, and agents are promoting themselves more. “As this change was underfoot, I was thinking that I needed to evolve myself too,” he said.
Though his own social-media use is mostly limited to following sailing accounts, he asked his daughter to help him post his listings online. Violet, now 26, started coming to D.C. once a month to film his reels. After an early video, on a condominium building called the Elliott, her sister Fern called her to report: “Daddy’s blowing up on Instagram,” Violet recalled. The reel got over 50,000 views. The next two each drew over 300,000. Peva’s most popular post ever, with over 838,000 views, was about the Grateful Dead playing in Georgetown. Sometimes, Peva interviews Georgetowners such as Quinn, the author, or Jamie Stachowski, the owner of a local butcher shop.
Peva, who majored in history in college, now spends up to two hours a day on research, usually in the morning while on his stationery bike. Online, he pores over old newspapers or the Library of Congress website, and he has a collection of articles and books—in and out of print—about Georgetown.
Companies often approach Peva for promotional posts, he said, but he turns them down, feeling that followers would lose interest in constant commercials. One exception is a recent paid post on Mount Vernon, the former home of George Washington. Peva wanted to share its history, he said, and didn’t want to lose the opportunity to another Instagrammer.
Anthony Arend, a professor at Georgetown University, has lived in his current home for 19 years without any plans to sell or buy real estate. But he follows Peva and often likes his posts.
“He is very charismatic, he is energetic, and he obviously knows a lot about the community,” said Arend, who has referred house-hunting friends to Peva.
One of Peva’s biggest deals—the $10.5 million sale of a 19th-century Italianate mansion—came after he made two 2024 reels featuring the property. In March, he sold the longtime O Street home of Tim and Jane Matz for $5.8 million after featuring it on his Instagram. Peva had showed them the home 25 years earlier, with Violet in a baby carrier on his back.
Last year, Kate Watts, 49, a digital consultant, called Peva to sell her late father’s three-bedroom house on Q Street; her husband had seen Peva on Instagram. In an October reel, Peva praised the architecture of the house, designed by modernist Hugh Newell Jacobsen. Halfway through, he mentioned an open house the next day, ending with an upbeat: “Did I also mention this house is for sale? $3.75 million!” The reel got 27,000 views, the open house was packed, and the buyers made an offer at the list price on the same day.
