Fontainebleau Miami Beach

Fontainebleau Miami Beach
Miami Landmark

Fontainebleau Miami Beach (2011)
Location 4441 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, Florida, US 33140
Coordinates 25°49′5″N 80°7′30″W / 25.81806°N 80.12500°W / 25.81806; -80.12500Coordinates: 25°49′5″N 80°7′30″W / 25.81806°N 80.12500°W / 25.81806; -80.12500
Area 180,525 m2 (1,943,150 sq ft)
Built 1954 (1954)
Architect Morris Lapidus
Architectural style Miami Modern Architecture (MiMo)
Visitation 16,349,845 (2015)
Website www.fontainebleaumiamibeach.com
NRHP Reference # 08001318[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP December 22, 2008[1]
Designated NHL June 24, 2010
Designated MFL December 9, 2011

The Fontainebleau Miami Beach (also known as Fontainebleau Hotel) is one of the most historically and architecturally significant hotels in Miami Beach, Florida. Opened in 1954 and designed by Morris Lapidus, it was arguably the most luxurious hotel in Miami Beach, and is thought to be the most significant building of Lapidus's career. In 2007, the Fontainebleau Hotel was ranked ninety-third in the American Institute of Architects list of "America's Favorite Architecture".[2] On April 18, 2012, the AIA's Florida Chapter ranked the Fontainebleau first on its list of Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places.[3]

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 1,504-room resort features two new towers, 12 restaurants and bars. a 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m2) spa with mineral-rich water therapies and co-ed swimming pools, and oceanfront poolscape featuring a free-form pool shaped as a re-interpretation of Lapidus’ signature bow-tie design.

History

Fontainebleau Hotel in a March, 1955, photo by Samuel Gottscho
Fontainebleau Hotel, Miami Beach (2004)

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 Novack on the Harvey Firestone estate. Novack owned and operated the hotel until its bankruptcy in 1977.[4]

The Fontainebleau is famous in judicial circles 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,[5] 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.[6][7] It stated that the "ancient lights" doctrine has been unanimously repudiated in the United States.[8]

In the 1970s a suite in the hotel was used by members of the Black Tuna Gang to run their operations.[9] This is recounted in the 2011 documentary Square Grouper, which follows the burgeoning marijuana-smuggling trade of the mid-to-late 1970s. It was at this time that large amounts of the drug were being shipped to southeastern Florida; the film alleges that more than ninety percent of the United States's illicit demand was being met through such channels.

In 1978, Stephen Muss bought the Fontainebleau Hotel for $27 million[10] rescuing it from bankruptcy.[11] He injected an additional $100 million into the hotel for improvements[11] and hired the Hilton company to manage it.[10] In 2005, the Muss Organization sold the Fontainebleau to Turnberry Associates[12] for $165 million.[10]

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 2008.[13]

On December 22, 2008, the Fontainebleau was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.[1]

Film, television and music history

The swimming pool is shown in the 1959 film A Hole in the Head. Tony Manetta (played by Frank Sinatra) attends a party there for businessman and friend Jerry Marks (Keenan Wynn). Miami Mayor Robert King High had a cameo during the gala. Sinatra videotaped a special on March 26, 1960, during his regular Timex-sponsored television series for ABC, to welcome back Elvis Presley from his two years of military service in Germany, which was broadcast on May 12, 1960.

The hotel was the setting for Jerry Lewis's 1960 comedy film, The Bellboy.

The Fontainebleau is depicted in the 1960-1962 television series, Surfside 6, about two detectives living and working aboard a houseboat moored directly across the street from the hotel. Supporting character Cha Cha O'Brien was an entertainer who worked at The Boom Boom Room in the hotel. Only establishing shots of the hotel were used; the series was filmed entirely at Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California.

The Fontainebleau Miami Beach is featured in the 1964 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". It is the hotel where Jill Masterton (played by Shirley Eaton) is murdered by the villainous Oddjob (Harold Sakata).[14]

The Fontainebleau was seen on The Sopranos in the season 4 (2002) episode "Calling All Cars".[15]

The hotel is repeatedly mentioned by Allan Sherman in his 1962 comedy song, "The Streets of Miami". The Fontainebleau is the title subject of a song written by Neil Young and performed by the Stills-Young Band on their 1976 album Long May You Run, which was recorded at the hotel.[16]

The Fontainebleau acts as the unmentioned location for a widely popular scene in 1983's Scarface where Steven Bauer, portraying Manolo, the movie's second role after Tony Montana, gets slapped in the face after trying to win over a girl through sticking out his tongue to her.

Renovations

Chateau Lobby

Fontainebleau’s grand re-opening on November 18, 2008 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" (formally called the "floating staircase"). The hotel's elaborate re-opening celebrations included hosting the annual Victoria's Secret fashion show.

Restaurants and nightclubs in the complex include:

Pronunciation

The local pronunciation of the hotel's name is the Anglicized "fountain blue" rather than the normal French pronunciation of the word.[17]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Weekly List Of Actions Taken On Properties: 12/22/08 through 12/24/08". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2008-12-30.
  2. ↑ BuildingOnline. "BuildingOnline eUpdate News: American Institute of Architects Releases Poll Showing America's Favorite Architecture - construction industry news". Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  3. ↑ "Current Standings". 2015 People's Choice Award (Florida Architecture). Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  4. ↑ "Ben Novack Sr.,78 Is Dead; Founder of Fontainebleau". New York Times. April 7, 1985.
  5. ↑ Opinion
  6. ↑ 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
  7. ↑ Case @ University of Chicago
  8. ↑ [Fontainebleau Hotel Corp. v. Forty-Five Twenty-Five, Inc., 114 So. 2d 357 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1959) .]
  9. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on April 25, 2010. Retrieved April 26, 2010.
  10. 1 2 3 Fool's Paradise: Players, Poseurs, and the Culture of Excess in South Beach By Steven Gaines pages 100 -110
  11. 1 2 South Florida Business Journal: "Born to build - Muss, Soffer progeny develop joint project : Fontainebleau II" by Stephen Van Drake March 11, 2002
  12. ↑ Sun-Sentinel: "Turnberry Buys Fontainebleau - $150 Million Targeted For Upgrades" by Tom Stieghorst January 21, 2005
  13. ↑ "Miami Beach Luxury Hotels & Resorts - Fontainebleau Miami Beach - Miami South Beach Hotels". Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  14. ↑ "James Bond Locations". Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  15. ↑ Ugoku. "The Sopranos location guide - Miami Beach hotel". Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  16. ↑ All Music Guide review of "Fontainebleau"
  17. ↑ Kitty Bean Yancey (December 9, 2004). "At 50, venerable Fontainebleau regaining its glitz". USA TODAY.
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