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Fontainebleau Hotel
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The Fontainebleau Miami Beach or the Fontainebleau Hotel is one of the most historically and architecturally significant hotels on Miami Beach. Built in 1954 and designed by Morris Lapidus, it was considered the most luxurious hotel on Miami Beach, and is thought to be the most significant building of Lapidus's career.
The Fontainebleau Miami Beach is situated on oceanfront Collins Avenue in the heart of Millionaire's Row and is currently owned by Fontainebleau Resorts.
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Encyclopedia
The Fontainebleau Miami Beach or the Fontainebleau Hotel is one of the most historically and architecturally significant hotels on Miami Beach. Built in 1954 and designed by Morris Lapidus, it was considered the most luxurious hotel on Miami Beach, and is thought to be the most significant building of Lapidus's career.
The Fontainebleau Miami Beach is situated on oceanfront Collins Avenue in the heart of Millionaire's Row and is currently owned by Fontainebleau Resorts. Fronting the Atlantic Ocean, the 1504-room resort’s most distinguishing features include two new towers; 11 restaurants and lounges, most notably Gotham Steak, Scarpetta, and Hakkasan; a 40,000-square-foot spa with mineral-rich water therapies and co-ed swimming pools; and dramatic oceanfront poolscape featuring a free-form pool shaped as a re-interpretation of Lapidus’ signature bow-tie design.
History
Lapidus once wrote, “If you create a stage and it is grand, everyone who enters will play their part.” He conceived of the ideas for the hotel each morning as he took a subway from Flatbush to his office in Manhattan. The hotel was built by hotelier Ben Novak on the Firestone estate.
The Fontainebleau is famous for its victory in the landmark 1959 Florida District Courts of Appeal decision, Fontainebleau Hotel Corp. v. Forty-Five Twenty-Five, Inc. 114 So. 2d 357, in which the Fontainebleau Hotel successfully appealed an injunction by the neighboring Eden Roc Hotel, to prevent construction of an expansion that blocked sunlight to the Eden Roc's swimming pool. The Court rejected the Eden Roc's claim to an easement allowing sunlight, in favor of affirming the Fontainebleau's vertical property rights to build on its land.
In the 1970s a suite in the hotel is known to have been used by members of the Black Tuna Gang to run their operations.
The hotel closed a large part of its property in 2006, though one building remained open to hotel guests, and the furnishings were available for sale. The expanded hotel and its new condominium buildings re-opened in November of 2008.
Film history
The Fontainebleau Miami Beach is featured in the James Bond film Goldfinger, most notably in the sweeping aerial shot that follows the opening credits and accompanies composer John Barry's big-band track "Into Miami".
The swimming pool is shown in Frank Sinatra's 1959 A Hole in the Head. Sinatra, Tony Manetta comes to a party for businessman and friend Keenan Wynn Jerry Marks.
The hotel was also the setting for Jerry Lewis's comedy film, The Bellboy. It gained a second round of architectural fame by its inclusion in critic and novelist Tom Wolfe's From Bauhaus to Our House, published in 1981, which referred to the condescending way that Lapidus was treated by the architectural profession and critics. The hotel, predominantly the pool area, was featured in the 1983 film Scarface. Other movies filmed there include Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach, The Specialist and Bodyguard.
The Fontainebleau was also the location of the Bravo television network's show Top Chef in the third season, and an episode of FOX's The O.C..
Renovations
Fontainebleau’s star-studded grand opening marked the end of a two year $1 billion transformation. Special care was taken to preserve many of the original design elements including the "Staircase to Nowhere."
Restaurants and nightclubs in the complex including the signature:
- Gotham Steak
- Scarpetta (Italian)
- Hakkasan (Cantonese)
- La Côte (two-level poolside bar and grille)
- Blade Sushi Bar
- Vida (Pan American)
- Solo (Café & Patisserie)
- Fresh (Snacks & Gelato)
- LIV (Nightclub, a.k.a. '54 formerly Tropigala Lounge)
- Bleau Bar
On December 22, 2008, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
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