Exclusive | Elizabeth Taylors home saved from demolition bedroom will be preserved as she left it in $47M restoration
Cue the klieg lights.Storied builder Ardie Tavangarian has high hopes his rehab and buildout of Elizabeth Taylor’s former Bel Air estate will command the same drawing power as the actress herself, in what appears to be his swan song as a decades-long uber-luxury developer.The 1.3-acre property where the legendary actress lived for 30 years is becoming a Taylor/Tavangarian manor, with restoration of the original home to shore up its 60-year-old frame and much of the interior remaining as when Taylor lived in it, right down to the huge room where she kept her fabled jewelry in velvet lined cases.Newness is coming from a large addition that will blend with and connect to the existing home, Tavangarian said in discussions with The Post — putting to bed persistent reports, and the resultant public outcry, that the legendary home was already torn down or was on its way to being so.Instead, it will be a melding “from the heart,” Tavangarian said.“We’re trying to create something that is a continuation of Elizabeth Taylor and her legacy while creating a phase 2 to enhance the beauty that is already here.”Taylor was an iconic actress and humanitarian activist who provided people decades of exceptional performances and much needed pathos.She bought the estate for $2 million in 1981 from Frank Sinatra’s first wife, Nancy, and lived there until her passing in 2011, at age 79.Some parts of the original 7,000-square-foot home will serve, in essence, as the Elizabeth Taylor wing, with rehab planned for her master bedroom and bath, her beauty center and other areas she treasured.“We’re just modernizing it from a point of view of functionality,” Tavangarian said.Tavangarian also plans a gallery for the home filled with Elizabeth Taylor-related artwork.The rest of the home is being remodeled to smoothly transition to an additional 12,000-square-foot buildout that has already seen a massive hill next to the house leveled to create an area that will include Tav...