Eden Roc Miami Beach Hotel

Eden Roc Miami Beach

The Eden Roc Miami Beach is a resort hotel at 4525 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach, Florida. It was designed by Morris Lapidus, in the Miami Modern style, and was completed in 1955-56. Eden Roc Miami Beach has been a favorite of distinguished guests from politicians to Hollywood's top stars. Renovated in 2008, the hotel offers 631 guest rooms, including 96 suites.[1] Eden Roc Miami Beach was built on the site of the Warner Estate following litigation over development rights to the site and to the neighboring Firestone Estate, which became the Fontainebleau Hotel.[2]

Design

Lapidus designed the Eden Roc for a site immediately to the north of his Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel built in 1954. The hotel was designed for Harry Mufson, who had partnered with Ben Novack to build the Fontainebleau. The Eden Roc site had previously been the Warner Estate, owned by Albert Warner of the Warner Brothers. Mufson told Lapidus "I don't want any of the French stuff you used at the Fontainebleau. That's for kids."[3] Novack, who had parted with Mufson on bad terms, retaliated by building a blank 17-story wing as a "spite wall" on the Fontainebleau property to shade the Eden Roc's pool, the sole window on the north side belonging to Novack's apartment.[3][4][5]

Hotel crest and sign

At the Eden Roc Lapidus avoided the sweeping curves of the Fontainebleau, choosing instead a more formal composition reminiscent of earlier Miami Beach hotels.[4] The hotel is surmounted by a large finned enclosure bearing the hotel's signs. An addition on the south side of the Eden Roc property was built to cover the spite wall and new pools were built in unshaded locations.[5]

The hotel was named after the Eden Roc pavilion at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes, France. The hotel housed the Cafe Pompei, a supper club that offered entertainment with dinner. The Mona Lisa Room was an intimate formal dining room., and Harry's American Bar (named for Harry Mufson) was the hotel's nightclub.[3]

Recent History

The hotel was restored in 1997 by architects Spillis Candela and Partners, and expanded in 2006.[4] Marriott International began operating the hotel in 2005 under its Renaissance Hotels & Resorts brand, with a fifty year contract. However due to disagreements between Marriott and the owners, which resulted in numerous lawsuits,[6] the hotel left Marriott on July 11, 2013.[7]

Eden Roc lobby

Film and TV appearances

The hotel was featured in several episodes of I Love Lucy. When the Ricardos and the Mertzes traveled to Miami, they stayed in the Eden Roc Hotel. It is also featured throughout the finale of the film Married to the Mob. Eden Roc was the hotel where professor Paul Armstrong's (Sean Connery) family stayed in the movie Just Cause.

References

  1. ↑ "Eden Roc Miami Beach". Cvent Supplier Network. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
  2. ↑ "Beach to Fight Ruling over Firestone Estate". Miami News. September 3, 1948. Retrieved 13 November 2012.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Eden Roc History". Eden Roc Renaissance Miami Beach. Retrieved 13 November 2012.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Shulman, Allan T.; Robinson, Randall C. Jr.; Donnelly, James F. (2010). Miami Architecture. University Press of Florida. pp. 319–320.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Shulman, Robinson, Donnelly, p. 318
  6. ↑ http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article72175Marriott_International_To_Depart_The_Eden_Roc_Renaissance_Miami_Beach_July___.html
  7. ↑ http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/13/3450016/eden-roc-no-longer-a-renaissance.html

External links

Coordinates: 25°49′10.47″N 80°07′20.34″W / 25.8195750°N 80.1223167°W

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