Miami Beach’s historic party resort The Surf Club is set to get a contemporary revival and expansion, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Meier & Partners.
The 1930s property, which welcomed Winston Churchill as a guest in its heyday, will be developed and managed by luxury brand Four Seasons in partnership with Fort Capital, a Miami-based private real estate investment company. The new developments will include the construction of an 80-room hotel and two 12-storey towers housing 150 private residences and penthouse apartments.
“When we acquired The Surf Club in 2012, our goal was to augment the property’s natural beauty and storied past with the intelligent, purposeful design of Richard Meier to create an elegant, amenity-rich residential and hospitality experience,” noted Nadim Ashi, CEO of Fort Capital. “By partnering with Four Seasons, we are going to ensure that Four Seasons Hotel at The Surf Club and The Surf Club Four Seasons Private Residences will consistently deliver the highest calibre of service.”
The project, which is Richard Meier & Partners’ first in the Miami area, also includes plans for a private membership club, two restaurants, four swimming pools, a spa and fitness center, more than 40 beach cabanas and oceanside gardens.
Each of the apartments will feature sea and city views and be furnished with interiors and finishes selected by Richard Meier. The building design will toy with space to create as much natural light as possible.
“The main challenge of the project is to balance the relationship between the existing courtyard typology of the historic Surf Club and the new vertical buildings of the residential and hotel complex surrounding the Surf Club,” Bernhard Karpf, Associate Partner from Richard Meier & Partners, explains.
“The unifying strategy for the whole project is the consistent introduction of natural light, and the establishment of visual corridors both of which will connect the old with the new buildings.”
Richard Meier added: “The Surf Club offers a unique opportunity to create an important addition to the built environment, one which affects a balance between the natural beauty of the expansive oceanfront site, and the desire for a new definition of luxury.
“Incorporating the historic structure; remaining sensitive to the gracious, low-rise context of Surfside, Florida; and further exploring the relationship between structure and sea has been a wonderful project for the firm.”
The legendary Surf Club, a nine-acre property on the Atlantic Ocean in Surfside, Florida, was founded in 1930 by Harvey Firestone as a private membership club. Construction on the current developments is set to be completed by 2016.
