Building Skyward

Sonny Astani’s gift to the Viterbi School Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering will help Los Angeles reach for the stars

When Hassan Astani, better known in Los Angeles real-estate circles as “Sonny” Astani, looks across an indigo skyline of sparkling lights, blinking traffic signals and softly lit high rises, he thinks about civil engineering and what it brings to urban life. He believes a lifestyle transformation is taking hold in cities like this all across the globe. It isn’t obvious to the casual eye, but slowly and assuredly, as urban areas expand to support more and more people, residents are beginning to favor the convenience of high-rise living, proximity to work and public transportation over commutes and spacious backyards.

“It all begins and ends with civil engineering,” the Beverly Hills real-estate developer and Viterbi School alumnus (MSISE ’78) says. “Look back to the seven ancient wonders of the world and you will find the beginnings of civil engineering. These ancient engineers carved out the greatest cities of the world from nothing. They’ve left their mark on our roads, our bridges, infrastructure, architecture and sense of place in the world. I can’t think of a more important profession in the history of civilization or to the sustainability of our cities in the future.”

To demonstrate his conviction, and fulfill a desire to give back to his alma mater, Astani made a $17 million gift to name the Viterbi School’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. The department will now be called the Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and take its place as the fourth-named department in the Viterbi School of Engineering.

“Sonny Astani is a remarkable Trojan who is transforming Los Angeles,” says USC President Steven B. Sample. “He understands the crucial role civil and environmental engineers must play as more and more people live in cities. We are deeply grateful at USC, not only for his exceptional gift, but also for his majestic vision of urban life.”

Yannis C. Yortsos, dean of the Viterbi School of Engineering, expresses his gratitude for Astani’s gift. “Sonny is known for his environmentally creative architecture and his philanthropic work to help people and improve neighborhoods. He shares our belief that civil and environmental engineers are the key to making the world’s burgeoning megacities highly functional, healthful and inspiring places to live.”

At a campus celebration to name the department, Yortsos noted that Astani’s gift goes to that branch of engineering that is closest to people’s lives. “Civil engineers provide homes, water, sanitation, bridges, tunnels, roads and civil infrastructure. And environmental engineering expertise is critical to safeguarding the environment.

“By 2030, almost 5 billion people, or 60 percent of the entire world, will live in cities,” Yortsos says. “This raises huge challenges for civil and environmental engineers, particularly in the context of megacities. Civil and environmental engineering are the major forces for improving and enhancing cities and urban centers around the world.”

Astani’s perspective on urban life comes from his own world travels and his enthusiasm for large cities. New York, Chicago, Tokyo, Shanghai, Mumbai, London and Los Angeles are his favorites. But he considers himself a “joyful participant” of Los Angeles, having been a part of this city’s growth and development over the last 30 years. An engineer by training, Astani says the profession will take center stage in this trend toward megacities in the 21st century.

“As we move toward larger and taller cities, we will have to find enterprising solutions to complex infrastructure, pollution and energy problems,” he says. “That will take imagination and a very forward-looking civil and environmental engineering program.”

The Man Behind the Gift

Astani is chairman of Astani Enterprises, Inc., one of the largest niche real-estate development companies in Los Angeles today, with investments valued at more than $1 billion. His firm owns or operates approximately 4,000 apartment units and lofts in the city and is currently building 2,000 condos and lofts in downtown L.A. These include three major residential projects, featuring iconic residential towers and lofts: the Concerto, a mixed-use, twin-tower complex standing 32 stories tall, with 27,000 square feet of shops, restaurants and spas; the 38-story Grand project; and Vero, located at 1234 Wilshire Blvd.

Astani serves on the Executive Committee of the Central City Association, on the Board of Councilors of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, and USC’s Lusk Center for Real Estate Development. He is also a board member of the Pacific Council for International Affairs.

His roots go back to Mashhad, Iran, one of the largest and holiest Persian cities. The oldest of four siblings, Astani was born into a military family in 1953, living in barracks the first four years of his life. Mashhad was the seat of commerce and industry in the Khorasan Province, located 500 miles (800 kilometers) east of Tehran. In 1957, Astani’s family moved to Tehran, where he was educated.

“In Iran, if you wanted to have a successful future, you either became an engineer or a doctor,” Astani says. “You have to decide very early on, because one career means you take a lot of math, the other a lot of biology. It’s really difficult to get into the good universities in Iran, so you have to start very early, just like in India and China today. From the fourth grade, while everyone else was outside playing soccer, I was studying math.”

From a young age, his dream had always been “to become an engineer with some higher degree from the United States.” But that meant he had to get into Sharif University of Technology, which has a high-quality engineering program, then stay afloat through a rigorous four-year curriculum.

“Nine out of 10 people flunked the college entrance exam because it was very difficult. Throughout high school, you had nightmares of flunking this exam, and they only administered it once a year,” Astani says.

Love at First Sight

That exam had a “deep impact” on Astani’s psyche, but he passed nevertheless and earned an undergraduate degree in engineering. In 1975, he applied to a handful of universities in the United States, getting the nod from all of them. He decided to visit a friend in L.A. and see the USC campus. When Astani arrived, “It was love at first sight.”

“I was coming from the middle of winter in Iran, wearing three layers of clothing, and everyone here was dressed in shorts and T-shirts. Everything was so new,” he said, smiling. “My friend took me to the USC campus, where there was a concert in the Commons area, and I got so caught up in it.”

Astani entered the master’s degree program in industrial and systems engineering in 1976, breezing through the course work in two years. One of his classes, Engineering Economics, taught by professor emeritus Gerald Fleischer, introduced him to the world of finance and investments, and changed his life.

“That was the very first course I ever took that taught me about compounding and net present values. It was very enlightening,” he says. “It gave me ideas about my career, about investments, and I became a fan of Warren Buffett, the best investor of our time.”

In 1978 he finished his degree, but the Iranian revolution changed his plans to return home. His mother convinced him to stay in Los Angeles and work, at least temporarily, until things settled down. He landed a job at Gould-Brown Boveri in Downey, Calif., a German company that built electrical poles, performing time-andmotion studies on the factory floor, but disliked the work.

He concluded that engineers were underappreciated and decided to pursue a real-estate license instead, then began showing houses for a prominent Westside brokerage house. But he grew bored quickly.

“I had that engineer’s big picture perspective about real estate, that it was a system with many different parts,” Astani says. “I wanted to do it all—build, own and operate—not just sell property to others.”

From Seller to Developer

He began to educate himself about property acquisition and development, driving through the neighborhoods and riffling through the property and zoning maps in City Hall, copying city plans by hand. Then, on the advice of another real-estate agent in his office, he partnered with one of his engineering friends to begin buying apartment complexes: first a seven-unit building in West L.A., then a 20-unit building in Hollywood, and then a 40-unit building in Hancock Park. In a span of five years, his company built 40 apartment buildings in West L.A., Hancock Park, Hollywood and Korea Town.

As his wealth increased, he bought out the company that employed him, Lambert Smith Hampton. He partnered with his brother, Marco, two years his junior, as the builder, and later, his two other siblings, Fay and Shane.

But the market took a nosedive in the early ‘90s and “real estate just wasn’t happening,” Astani says. He had six apartments under construction and little money coming in, which left him near financial ruin. Ironically, during those difficult times, he met his future wife, Jo, an artist from Korea, who made her home in a loft in the downtown artists’ community, where he had been scouting for property acquisitions.

Astani was forced to start thinking outside of the box.

“I changed my mind-set from being a broker to being a developer,” he says, “and began talking to banks about taking over foreclosed properties.”

The banks were skeptical at first, but eventually took him on. Big overseas investors in Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia partnered with Astani to develop and manage condominium projects all over Los Angeles.

By 1999, Astani Enterprises was a unique, multifaceted firm with investments in 2,000 apartment units across the city.

‘City Chic’ Renaissance

Astani realized a “city chic” residential renaissance was under way. He got serious about downtown acquisitions, and within a year, had purchased three significant development sites totaling 8 acres for $80 million.

“I had been eyeing downtown L.A. for a long time because things were going on there,” Astani says. “Downtown was so depressed at that time, but in 2003, the city passed this obscure ‘adaptive reuse law,’ so that you could buy these big, beautiful, empty buildings at $20 a foot and turn them into anything you wanted. Realtors were turning them into lofts and studios and renting them very inexpensively. That’s when I thought something was going to take off in Los Angeles. The Staples Center was just opening, and the Disney Concert Hall was under construction.

“Part of my excitement about Los Angeles is the whole concept of the Figueroa Corridor, which could span the University Park campus, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Exposition Park, Galen Center, the Staples Center, Disney Hall and Our Lady of Angels Cathedral,” Astani says. “It could be one continuous corridor of arts, entertainment, music, education, theater, and a global venue for sporting events. It can be the perfect place for USC students and attract people from all over the world.”

All the right circumstances seem to be converging now to make that happen. USC’s “Visions and Voices” initiative is bringing world-class art, literature and theater to campus and the surrounding environs; Astani’s residential high-rises—known for their contemporary sophistication and environmental aesthetics—have already transformed Los Angeles, adding an “organic” quality to the city. Astani says L.A.’s next challenge is “to find its voice skyward.”

Sonny and Jo Astani reside in the Pacific Palisades, where they live in a Richard Neutra-designed home with their three children. His brothers, sister, mother, cousins and his wife’s relatives all live close by, and when combined, represent 10 nations and “a lot of lively, multilingual get-togethers.” In his free time, Astani enjoys the martial arts, and holds a second-degree black belt. He also cycles, swims and travels the world. Jo is an accomplished equestrienne.