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Inside a $75M Lake Tahoe Mansion with a Hillside Tram | On the Market | Architectural Digest

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A $75 million estate on Lake Tahoe’s north shore comes with its own private tram system.

Architectural Digest’s “On the Market” series pulled back the curtain on Crystal Pointe, a lakefront compound in Crystal Bay, Nevada, that debuted as the most expensive residential listing in Lake Tahoe history. Built directly into the steep granite contour of the mountainside, the estate spans 5.14 secluded acres and 525 feet of private shoreline. Getting from the garage down to the water doesn’t involve stairs at all — it involves two glass-enclosed funicular trams.

• Crystal Pointe covers roughly 16,232 square feet across a primary residence, an attached guest house, a caretaker’s apartment, and a separate beach house, with 8 bedrooms, 10 to 11 bathrooms, and 13 fireplaces.
• Two private, glass-enclosed funicular trams descend the hillside to connect the main living areas with the beach house and the water’s edge.
• The property includes a 10-seat screening room with a 14-foot projection screen, a climate-controlled 1,687-bottle wine cellar, and a mountainside hot tub overlooking the lake.

Built Into the Mountain, Not On Top of It

Crystal Pointe’s footprint isn’t a flat lakeside lot — it’s a vertical drop from road level down to the shoreline, and the compound was engineered to work with that grade rather than flatten it. The 5.14-acre parcel and its 525 feet of shoreline sit on the north shore, one of the more secluded and less-trafficked stretches of Tahoe’s roughly 72-mile perimeter. Getting materials to the site during construction reportedly required barging supplies across the lake and helicoptering others in, a logistical undertaking that stretched the build out over years given the terrain.

That same topography is why the estate is split into four distinct structures rather than one sprawling house: the primary residence, an attached guest house, a caretaker’s apartment, and a standalone beach house at the water’s edge, together totaling about 16,232 square feet.

The Funicular Trams

The signature feature of the tour is the pair of glass-enclosed funiculars — hillside cable railways — that shuttle residents and guests down the cliffside from the garage and main living levels to the beach house below. It’s a functional solution to a real problem: without the trams, reaching the water from the house would mean navigating a steep, wooded slope on foot.

Two private, glass-enclosed trams carry residents from the garage straight down to the beach house at the water’s edge.

Screening Room, Wine Cellar, and the Hot Tub With a View

Inside, the amenity list reads like a checklist for entertaining at altitude. The private screening room seats 10 in front of a 14-foot projection screen, while the climate-controlled wine cellar holds 1,687 bottles. Outside, a mountainside hot tub overlooks the lake — the kind of feature that only works because the house is carved into a slope with unobstructed sightlines. Readers who’ve followed AD’s other big-ticket walkthroughs, like the $65 million Beverly Hills mega mansion or the multi-terrace eight-level Manhattan townhouse, will recognize the format — but Crystal Pointe’s terrain is what separates it from anything built in a city.

A Record Price for Tahoe

At $75 million, Crystal Pointe set the record as the most expensive residential listing ever in Lake Tahoe when it hit the market. That figure reflects not just the square footage or bedroom count but the shoreline itself — 525 feet of private beach on a lake where undeveloped, buildable waterfront is scarce and heavily regulated on both the Nevada and California sides.

Whoever buys Crystal Pointe isn’t just getting eight bedrooms and 13 fireplaces — they’re getting a beach house that’s functionally its own address, reachable only by tram, on one of the last big private stretches of shoreline left on the lake.