It is not often that a movie location is inspired by a work of art, but such was the case with the modern beach pad Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) called home in the 1995 action classic “Heat.” For the shoot, director Michael Mann enlisted famed film scout Lori Balton to track down a residence embodying artist Alex Colville’s 1967 painting “Pacific,” a moody piece depicting a man looking out at the ocean through a large picture window with a gun resting behind him on a table in the foreground. And Balton certainly delivered! The dwelling ultimately selected, which she scoured the Southern California coastline to find, perfectly encapsulates the painting and, as Balton beautifully summarizes, “the feeling of discomfort it somehow evokes despite its perfect harmony.”
Purported to be in Santa Monica in the movie, Neil’s home can actually be found in Malibu Cove Colony, an exclusive guard-manned gated community consisting of 51 oceanfront homes that line a single dead-end road about a mile north of Paradise Cove in Central Malibu. Towering two stories directly above the sand at 26940 Malibu Cove Colony Dr., the ultra-modern structure is the ultimate beach pad! (Please remember this is a private home. Do not trespass or bother the residents or the property in any way.)
Cinematic through and through, the dwelling, perhaps not surprisingly, is the work of Ron Goldman, FAIA, of Goldman Firth Rossi, the very same architect behind such oft-filmed properties as the Jenny Residence in Zuma Beach (from “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”), Rancho Cielo in Agoura (which, sadly, no longer stands but was a regular fixture on “The Bachelor”) and portions of the Brandeis-Bardin Institute in Simi Valley (of “The Mentalist” and “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” fame).
Goldman constructed the beach pad as his own private residence in 1982. It has changed hands several times in the years since, most recently in December 2020 for $7.25 million. And now it has just hit the market once again! Listed by broker Pamela Ulich of Douglas Elliman Realty (whose extensive resume includes stints serving as both the mayor of Malibu and a city council member, as well as in-house counsel for both the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America!), the property is being offered for $21,585,000 – or a whopping $6,164 per square foot. Apparently, living like Neil McCauley requires some very deep pockets!
