The Miami Beach neighborhood of Mid-Beach is now a thing. And the latest addition to this instantly celebrated scene is the Faena Hotel, the brainchild of Argentine fashion designer/rosarian/hotelier Alan Faena, in partnership with New York investor Len Blavatnik. Following great success with the revamping of the Puerto Madero district by the docks in Buenos Aires, Faena is attempting to work similar magic in South Florida. Two hotels, a Sir Norman Foster–designed condo, shops, and a cultural center all form and flow freely into a holistic six-block project, which is not just a development but an officially designated sector of the city: the Faena District. “It’s important as my creative process to give knowledge to the people who come, of the instant, of the present, of the beauty of the present,” Faena says, wearing his signature white suit and white hat, in a one-on-one interview in the outdoor bar of the hotel. “I think of this place as more an ashram than a hotel. People come here, heal themselves, have great music, great art, a great show, and they go home enriched.”
Core to this mission is the Faena Forum, which just celebrated its grand opening, timed to coincide with last week’s annual Art Basel Miami Beach fair. A cool-white drum, the 43,000-square-foot cultural center, exhibition space, and performance venue was designed by Rem Koolhaas and his Office of Metropolitan Architecture. Koolhaas also designed the on-site Faena Bazaar retail establishment, and, like his fellow big-name designers Herzog & de Meuron up the road in South Beach, an architecturally significant parking garage—although Koolhaas’s is automated. “They are super talented; I work with them really well,” Faena says of Koolhaas and OMA. “We created a space that is unique. We conceived the Forum as an incubator for artists, to amplify voices. I want to work with the best, and for me I consider that they are one of the best.”
Adding even more cachet to the scene, the Faena has just announced that it now sports a hospitality partnership with luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz. The brand not only acts as the official vehicle of the Faena District—shuttling VIPs to events, destinations, and the like in a pair of $200,000 Mercedes-Maybach S600s—it is also a name sponsor of the Faena Art program, investing in cultural programming in the region. Moreover, the partnership allows current owners of Mercedes-Benz vehicles some exclusive on-site benefits, such as the use of a Mercedes vehicle while staying at the property, special in-room gifts, as well as upgrades. (Potential Benz customers may also take advantage of test-drive opportunities while staying on the premises.)
“Now that the volumes, the buildings, are finished, all the collaborations are key to fill out the feel of the district,” Faena says. “Mercedes is always pushing the limits in concept, in technology, in design. We have the same seed of collaboration in pushing design forward.”
As we reported recently, it’s increasingly common for luxury automakers to seek out co-branding opportunities with residential and hospitality partners, especially in the still growing real-estate market of Miami, so this high-end vehicular affiliation is at once recherché and de rigueur. And we’re in favor of support for cool architecture and the arts.
Lest you believe that the project is solely about design and culture, the Faena hotel also offers the latest in spa services at its Tierra Santa Healing House, numerous fancy restaurants and velvet-roped bars, a 1940s-Latin-glamour interior aesthetic designed by Baz Luhrmann and his wife, Catherine Martin, as well as personal butler service and Experience Managers, which we assume are something like concierges, but more . . . experiential.
Will all of these amenities equate to a winning combination? Come to Mid-Beach and see for yourself.
