|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Click on image
to enlarge. |
|
INTERIOR
DESIGN June 2000
Easy,
Breezy Beach House
Rubell
Hotels’ new property in
Bal
Harbour
skewers old notions of
Florida
hospitality and transports the feel of a
Hamptons
summer house to within minutes of
Miami
’s
South
Beach
. Think
about the crisp white sails, clear blue sky, and indulgent luxury that
are synonymous with summer in
New York
’s Hamptons and you’ll be in the right
frame of mind to experience Rubell Hotels’ nine-month-old
Beach
House
Bal
Harbour
.
Jennifer
Rubell, co-owner of the 170-room hotel, and erstwhile Polo Ralph Lauren
interior designer Scott Sanders had no hesitation about transplanting a
New England
resort idiom to a 50-year old beachfront gem
just minutes away from the Art Deco chic and
Florida
funk of
Miami
’s
South
Beach
. “We wanted to recreate the feel of a
summer house in the
Hamptons
—decorated but not oppressive, low-key and
comfortable, yet luxurious. We
had no issues with authenticity.
Miami
is not
Nantucket
any more than this hotel is a house.
Hotels are about fantasy” says Rubell, who regularly summers in
the
Hamptons
with her family.
The
starting point for this multi-million dollar transformation was finding
a workable look for the five floors of guestrooms.
Sanders, a residential designer who had never before attempted a
hotel, was challenged to find a concept that worked for nine different
room types. His solution was
to make the views not only the focal point, but the design impetus.
The blue and white colors of the views outside became the central
palette for the experience within.
These
rooms are overstuffed oases on a very residential scale.
From the use of heavy combed cotton fabrics to the whitewashed
wood wainscoting and the inclusion of details such as shelves and books,
these guestrooms have not only the look but also the feel of a home away
from home. “Everything is
about comfort” says Sanders “We didn’t want anything from a
certain period, just a clean, crisp look.”
To make sure the look stayed clean and crisp, the design team
selected residential fabrics but ran separate dye lots and brightened
the durability.
Reinventing
the anonymous public spaces of a 1950s hotels was another major hurdle
for Sanders and architect John Hufka, who is also based in
New York
. It
helped that the Rubells were willing to throw away all the boring,
pretentious, by-the-book ides of the grand old hotels.
Along with these cast-off notions went any thought of a large,
traditional lobby and a dramatic entry sequence.
Instead that architects and designers scaled down the public
space into a series of intimate-home-like environment.
They include the Screened-in Porch, with its antique wicker
furnishings; the Bamboo Room, a mix of Ralph Lauren leather couches and
Japanese accents; the Seahorse Bar, part intimate private den, part sexy
night spot; and the Atlantic restaurant, which plays off the central
theme of seashell-patterned blue fabric.
“I
didn’t want the public space to look as if I had 50,000 sq. ft. of
space to fill and just wanted to get it over with.
That’s how you end up with lobby furniture that’s all the
same and carpeting that’s all the same. I wanted to use the kind of
attention to detail I would use in decorating someone’s home,” says
Sanders, who thinks of these spaces as hidden treasures.
Creating a
truly residential experience in the public spaces led Sanders not only
through the familiar resources of Polo Ralph Lauren’s home collection
but, along with Rubell, through a cramped antique store basement in
Marblehead
,
Maine
, where they found the right wicker pieces.
Back in
Miami
, they went to competitive hot4els, bars, and
restaurants to find what worked and what did not.
Although Rubell believes in weighing functionality against
individuality, she has a different definition of “functional” than
most hoteliers.
“It
would have been easier to order everything out of a catalogue,” says
Rubell. “One of the antique wicker couches has already collapsed under
the weight of heavy hotel usage. It
took a lot of time to find a replacement.
Would it have been easier, and more efficient to just buy a new
one? Yes. Is that what she wanted? No. It’s just part of the price
your pay in creating a special place,
--Mary
Scorisk
|
