“From the moment Andrew and I purchased The Colony Palm Beach, we wanted to restore the lobby back to its original glamorous stature,” Colony co-owner Sarah Wetenhall says of herself and her husband. “Hospitality is all about first impressions…[and] I had this dream of visually immersing our guests in the Colony experience in a truly unique way.”
Although the Wetenhalls went about this by installing a perfectly pink custom de Gournay wallpaper mural (more on that later), they’re not alone in partaking in what seems to be a Floridan hotel renaissance. Despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and its notably high rates in the Sunshine State, a slew of hospitality ventures are piquing interest and turning heads—thanks in no small part to their emphases on historic design.
A newly aqua-tinged space inside the Fisher Island Club.
Photo: Courtesy of the Fisher Island Club
On Fisher Island, designer Adriana Hoyos has been hard at work on the resort component of the Fisher Island Club after recently completing a series of refreshed common spaces within the famously exclusive members-only social club. Notably, the Vanderbilt Mansion is the keystone of the property. “I wanted to know a little bit about its history,” she says when reached by phone by AD. “If you go to my portfolio, it’s more about neutral tones. But here, we decided to use Floridian colors—pinks, aquas…it’s a happy place to be. And once we had the vision, everything flowed very well.”
Over on Key West, Casa Marina, which is today a Waldorf Astoria Resort, recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. The Spanish Renaissance structure shares some of the same architects with those who worked on the Metropolitan Opera House and the New York Public Library. “Two of my favorite features are the 750,000-gallon working cistern, which was built in 1920 and still collects fresh rainwater that we use to water the hotel’s landscape, and the reclaimed Dade County Pine hardwood flooring created from environmentally friendly, river-reconstituted Florida pine,” Casa Marina’s Andrew Rosuck says to AD.
A vintage postcard depicting Casa Marina testifies to its history.
Henry M. Flagler, who notably designed The Breakers Palm Beach, was the principal architect on the initial commission. “Casa Marina was his final project and crown jewel,” Rosuck notes. This month, Rosuck and his team are expanding on his legacy by opening a new on-site casual dining spot that will no doubt be a hit with current and future guests.
As for that de Gournay wallpaper back at the Colony, it too is all about hotel history. “When the hotel first opened in 1947, the lobby featured a huge mural above check-in and a jet-black terrazzo floor,” Wetenhall explains to AD. “This mural was titled The Early Days in Palm Beach, and featured iconic images of beloved Palm Beach scenes. It was this combination of the floor-to-ceiling mural juxtaposed against the stark black terrazzo that really spoke to me—I knew that we had to reinterpret it in a manner that was relevant for today’s Colony guests, while at the same time respecting the heritage.”
As intriguing as these three destinations may be, they’re only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Florida’s ongoing hotel boom. This past fall, The White Elephant Palm Beach opened with a delightful 32-room design by architect Elkus Manfredi. In Miami, the W South Beach recently reopened after a redesign, while the The Confidante Miami Beach has a new restaurant in the works. Tons of options, it seems, for those in search of some fun in the sun—as well as for those more interested in surveying the great indoors.
