The building at 1458 Ocean Drive went up in the late 1930s, in the years when South Beach was filling with small hotels in pastel stucco, with eyebrow awnings over every window to keep the sun off the glass. When we took it on, the façade, the terrazzo floors and the round porthole windows on the ground floor were all still there, under decades of paint and carpet.
What we kept
The terrazzo was ground back and polished by hand, room by room. The portholes are now the windows of The Porthole Café. The curved corners of the front rooms became the Deco Suites, each with a rounded balcony restored to its original rail. The colours on the outside — shell pink, ivory and a band of mint — were matched to paint scrapings found under the cornice.
What we rebuilt
Everything behind the walls is new: plumbing, wiring, air conditioning and double glazing on the street side. The dorms were designed around made-to-measure oak pods rather than bunks, because a curtain that closes, a light you control and a drawer that locks are what make a shared room restful.
The roof, which had been a tar-paper flat, is now the Sky Deck, with a saltwater pool, a bar and the one penthouse in the house.