Newport Beach
12 Bay Island
$21,900,000

Bedrooms: 5   |   Bathrooms: 7   |   Square Feet: 5,415   |   Bay View: Yes

A private footbridge stands surveying the entrance to one of Southern California’s most idyllic and prestigious enclaves, Bay Island. One immediately senses that one has arrived at a magical place. Beyond the bridge lies a mysterious and alluring island, dotted with less than two dozen quintessentially Californian beach homes, each possessing a distinct personality and history, overlooking extraordinary botanical gardens, the waters of the harbor, and the white sands of private beaches.

Time moves slowly on the island, affording a distinctively luxurious lifestyle unaltered by the tides of taste and fashion. History is revered here, and the assortment of homes on the island presents itself as a carefully curated assemblage of architectural styles suited to this one-of-a-kind setting. Nothing stands farther apart from the current notion of Southern California, yet is so integrally a part of its venerable history, than this paradisiacal island. A genuine sanctuary, Bay Island has successfully resisted the advances of time and remains a world apart from what has been built up around it in the last one hundred years.

Upon reaching the island, a vast natural courtyard garden unfolds. Emerald lawns and vibrant flowers are encircled by stands of mature trees. The towering canopies of fronds and branches carefully shade the garden and create an immediate and inescapable sense of tranquility. Life on the island is peaceful, and its inhabitants bask in an otherworldly sense of calm. No motor cars traverse the island. Footsteps, bicycles and the occasional electric cart are the only traffic one ever hears along the paths leading to each of the private residences. The seclusion and privacy of life here is unmatched anywhere else along the coast. Homes here are prized family possessions. Repositories of families’ histories, they rarely are traded, except to pass to successive generations.omgroup

At the far end of the main pathway, just past the tennis court, one arrives at Twelve Bay Island. Occupying the island’s premier waterfront position, this home is sited on a natural promontory, surrounded on three sides by lawns, beaches, and uninterrupted water views. It stands alone, a sentinel overlooking the confluence of the harbor’s broadest waterways while also commanding a stunning panorama of city lights at night. At Twelve Bay Island an ever-changing tableau of activity on the water ensures your visual connection to the world off of the island. At the same time, your favored position here forever ensures your privileged separation from it.

The resulting pan-Asian residence is a carefully executed endeavor, born of years of planning, assembling and ultimately creating a home with a subtle, yet exotic, ambiance that bears no obvious signs of the efforts it took to create. It is substantial, yet simple; refined, yet relaxed; luxurious, serene, and comfortable. It abounds in inconspicuous good taste. Warm and generous, the home only reinforces the special impression made long before reaching its door. Surfaces and finishes rendered in Mahogany, limestone, bronze, and Venetian plaster have been lovingly articulated in an ingeniously layered and textured interior of comfortable rooms and complementary indoor/outdoor spaces.