Home Is Where The Art Is.

Grand architecture makes its statement at a distance. Those Richard Meier condominiums on Manhattan's far West Side look their best from the middle of the Hudson. And the finest view of One Central Park's soaring glass towers is in, well, Central Park.

Azzurra's grand statement, on the other hand, is made at close range. Viewed from busy Lincoln Boulevard in Marina del Rey, California, this blue-glass high-rise of waterfront condominiums is pleasant enough, if unspectacular. Inside, however, three bold, colorful works stand out on the mahogany wall above the reception desk in the lobby.

Wow, you think, stepping back and taking another look. Those are Stellas. The 14-foot-long painting to the left is by Pop Artist Jim Dine. The shiny blue swirl of riveted tin near the elevators is by L.A. collagist Tony Berlant. And up in the mezzanine hang lithographs by Ellsworth Kelly, Ed Ruscha and Jasper Johns.

That's just for starters. The public spaces of Azzurra's 19 stories feature more than 150 works by 50 artists, most of them central to the Los Angeles art scene of the 1960s and '70s. Each floor above the mezzanine is dedicated to a single "artist in residence," with three large works in each corridor and two smaller pieces in one of the elevator foyers. Floor 8 is devoted to Sam Francis, 17 to David Hockney, 18 to Johns, 4 to Ruscha, 11 to Richard Diebenkorn, 14 to Robert Rauschenberg, the penthouse to Andy Warhol and so on. In all, it's a $2-million collection with the coherence and edifying heft of a fine museum exhibition. It's also--like those architecturally striking condo buildings in Manhattan--the latest marriage of culture and real estate, a lure to buyers who want a dose of sophistication with their breathtaking views and resort-caliber amenities. Colony Capital, which bought the three-year-old building early last year and spent $15 million updating the pool, indoor/outdoor fitness area and roof deck, is betting that clients will have their heads turned by the notion of passing a Warhol or Hockney or Diebenkorn en route to their front door. Sales agent the Sunshine Group has targeted its marketing of the building around the art collection and has sold 60 percent of the building's 450 units in six months.

"It's a differentiating factor," says Tom Harrison, a principal at Colony. "We wanted to add substance and authenticity to the building. And an art collection was a natural outgrowth given the location."

That location inspired Azzurra's art consultant, Julie Cline, to link the building to the history of nearby Venice beach. In the '60s and '70s, Venice's local artists lived a fun-in-the-sun life of surfing, riding around in cars and on motorcycles, and other, more countercultural pursuits, which drew New York luminaries like Warhol and Rauschenberg west to investigate. Colony liked the idea of chronicling the era through art, settled on a budget and turned Cline loose to spend the next 11 months purchasing pieces out of galleries, artists' own studios and private collections. "There's a lot more art here than $2 million," she says, noting that she bought many pieces under market value. "People wanted to be a part of this collection."

To contextualize the works, she also acquired vintage photographs of the artists, many taken by the actor Dennis Hopper (whose re-creation of his 1961 Los Angeles snapshot Double Standard also hangs billboard-sized in the lobby). Exit the elevator on any floor and you're met with a life-sized and appealingly eccentric portrait: John Altoon, for instance, standing shirtless in pajamas outside his ramshackle house, or Robert Rauschenberg sticking his tongue out at the camera. There's also, hanging in the mezzanine, Julian Wasser's racy 1963 photo of Marcel Duchamp playing chess with a nude Eve Babitz at his Pasadena Art Museum retrospective (his first in the U.S.). "I really wanted to tell the story and connect the building to the period," says Cline, who knows a few of the artists personally, and who wrote short biographies of each to accompany the collection. She credits Colony with having the courage to commit to the $2-million budget. "I think that they really took a chance here. There are so few developers who would have the guts to do this."

Colony's investment is further noteworthy considering that unlike fine hotel collections, these pieces are being turned over to the building's residents. "[The owners] will have a living collection of art that they can add to or change out," says Harrison. "They can grow the collection if they wish." Colony might even be passing along a good investment, one that could appreciate in value. Or more importantly, in prestige, says Santa Monica gallery owner Bobbie Greenfield, who represents many of the artists at Azzurra. "To see those three large Stellas on the wall is glorious," she says. "All of a sudden you are coming home to an environment that speaks well of you."