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 at the time of its opening and for a long time after that, and is also thought to be the most significant building of Lapidus's career. Year 1954 ( MCMLIV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1954 Gregorian calendar) Morris Lapidus ( November 25, 1902 &ndash January 18, 2001) was the architect of curvy flamboyant Neo-baroque modern hotels
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Location
The Fontainebleau Miami Beach is situated on oceanfront Collins Avenue in the heart of Millionaire's Row, just north of the I-195 causeway.
Overview
In his 1996 autobiography Too Much is Never Enough, Lapidus wrote that if: "American taste was being influenced by the greatest mass media of entertainment of that time, the movies. Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) . . . So I designed a movie set!" The hotel was built by hotelier Ben Novak on the Firestone estate. Lapidus conceived of the ideas for the hotel each morning as he took a subway from Flatbush to his office in Manhattan. Flatbush is a community of the Borough of Brooklyn, a part of New York City, consisting of several neighborhoods Manhattan Island, in New York Harbor, is much the largest part of the Borough of Manhattan, one of the Five Boroughs which form the City of New York
It was 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". James Bond 007 is a Fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve Novels and two Short story Goldfinger (1964 is the third James Bond film, as well as the third to star Sean Connery as MI6 agent James Bond. John Barry, OBE (born John Barry Prendergast on 3 November 1933 in York, England) is a renowned Golden Globe and five-time Academy
The Fontainebleau was also the setting for Jerry Lewis's comedy film, The Bellboy. Jerry Lewis (born March 16, 1926) is an American Comedian, award-winning actor producer writer and director best-known for his slapstick The Bellboy is a 1960 Comedy film starring written by and directed by Jerry Lewis. 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. Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr (born March 2, 1931 in Richmond, Virginia) known as Tom Wolfe, is a Best-selling From Bauhaus to Our House is a 1981 book critiquing Modern architecture, written by Tom Wolfe. Year 1981 ( MCMLXXXI) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 The hotel, predominantly the pool area, was featured in the 1983 film Scarface. Year 1983 ( MCMLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar) Other movies filmed there include Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach, The Specialist and Bodyguard. Police Academy 5 Assignment Miami Beach is the 1988 installment in the Police Academy series launched in 1984. The Specialist was a 1994 drama, Action film from Warner Bros A bodyguard (or "close protection officer" is a type of Security guard or government agent who protects a person—usually a famous wealthy or politically
The hotel is famous for its victory in the landmark 1959 Florida District Courts of Appeal decision, Fontainebleau Hotel Corp. The year 1959 ( MCMLIX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Florida District Courts of Appeal ( DCAs) were created in 1957 to provide an intermediate level of appellate review between the county courts and state circuit 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 Eden Roc is a Resort and Spa located at 4525 Collins Avenue on Miami Beach Florida. 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. [1][2]
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. This article is about the Decade 1970-1979 For the Year 1970 see 1970. The Black Tuna gang was a Colombian Marijuana - Smuggling organization active in 1970s Miami.
The hotel closed a large part of its property in 2006, though one building remains open to hotel guests, and the furnishings are currently available for sale. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. The expanded hotel and its new condominium buildings will re-open in 2008. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common [3]
The hotel was also the location of the Bravo television network's show Top Chef in the third season. Bravo is a Cable television network owned by NBC Universal. It is currently seen in more than 80 million homes and was the first service dedicated to film drama Top Chef is an American reality competition show that airs on the Cable television network Bravo, in which chefs compete against each
Renovations
The newly formed Fontainebleau Resorts purchased the complex in 2006 and painstakingly rebuilt it over two years -- at a cost of almost $1-billion dollars taking special care to preserve many of the original design elements including the famous "staircase to nowhere".
It now boasts 11 restaurants, a 40,000 square-foot spa, the bow-tie pool, and 1500 rooms.
La Côté is the two-level poolside bar and grille.
Other restaurants and nightclubs in the complex include:
* Gotham Steakhouse * Sprezza (Italian) * Hakkasan (Cantonese) * LIV (Nightclub, a. k. a. '54 formerly Tropigala Lounge) * Blade (Sushi) * Glow (Pool Bar)
References
- ^ FOUNTAINEBLEAU HOTEL CORP., a Florida corporation, and Charnofree Corporation, a Florida corporation, Appellants, v. FORTY-FIVE TWENTY-FIVE, INC., a Florida corporation, Appellee. @ LexisNexis Academic
- ^ Case @ University of Chicago
- ^ Fontainebleau Hotel & Resort - Miami Beach, Florida - www.fontainebleau.com
External links
- Fontainebleau Resort - Miami Beach Website
- Fontainebleau Hotel & Resort Website
- Trajan Magazine: The New 'bleau
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