Sand castle: Fasano Hotel + Residences brings understated luxury to Miami

­­The inspired pairing of Isay Weinfeld, the Fasano group and the iconic Shore Club hotel in Miami’s South Beach is one of the most exciting design collaborations Wallpaper* has seen – and we’ve been tracking since it was first announced. We’re clearly not the only ones; the hotel is set to be a major hotspot this week, playing host to a number of exhibitions and events, including Arte Club Jacaranda, as the creative crowds descend on Miami.

The transformation of the historic Shore Club into an appropriately luxurious Fasano property – the group’s first in the United States – has been left in the hands of Weinfeld, who also crafted Fasano’s São Paulo flagship and its expanding Punta del Este accommodations in Uruguay. In its new guise, which is scheduled to begin construction in early 2016 and complete at the end of 2017, Fasano Hotel + Residences at Shore Club will feature 100 hotel rooms and 75 condominiums. In addition to preserving and transforming the Central Tower – the Shore Club’s original 22-floor structure – the hotel will feature a converted eight-storey North Tower, and a collection of two-storey poolside and beachfront bungalows, as well as a building featuring a new gym, with yoga and personal training rooms, and a spa and wellness center. There is also a South Tower, which houses the main hotel lobby, that retains many of the property’s original iconic details.

‘I hate to repeat myself. I never take projects where I have to repeat. If you work for a brand that has 300 shops all over and it requires for the project to repeat, this is the kind of project that is not for me,’ reflects Weinfeld, who worked on redesigning the Shore Club for about a year and a half with developers HFZ Capital Group before the Fasano group signed on as the hotel operator. ‘It’s a very good project inside an office because it’s work, but to design the same thing for 3-4 years... it’s boring for me, unless you can do one different from another. This was my [condition] when I decided to design the first Fasano. If we were to design another one, it should have the same feeling, but according to each place.’

Weinfeld describes that ‘Fasano feeling’ and the Fasano family and as ‘very elegant, very discreet and subtle with no showing off, no gold or bling, and no boutique hotel design as we know it. It’s also very comfortable, which is the main word for me when talking about architecture and life in general.’

In addition to the sumptuous mix of terrazzo, concrete, steel and lush landscaping that will bridge indoors with out, Fasano Hotel + Residences at Shore Club will demonstrate the Fasano family’s trademark flair for service in a poolside restaurant, garden-facing bar and lobby lounge. Like its compatriots, the hotel’s restaurants will feature a rich combination of Italian heritage with Brazilian flavour.

The three-acre property will also boast the largest swimming pool in South Beach – measuring about 250 feet long and offering over 9,500 sq ft of oceanfront bathing.