Posted On November 07, 2016
Faena Hotel Miami Beach
Project Spotlight
The Saxony Hotel has had a makeover! The newly named Faena Hotel Miami Beach is up and running following an extensive renovation where G&T provided cost and project management services. The hotel moves away from traditional ideas, bringing life back to Miami Beach. Read on to find out more about this ground-breaking scheme and the interesting ideas behind it…
Originally built by businessman George Sax in 1948, The Saxony Hotel was the first luxury property to appear in Miami Beach, hosting Hollywood royalty such as Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe. Argentine developer, Alan Faena, employed the skills of film director, Baz Luhrmann and costume designer, Catherine Martin, to transform this hotel into a central part of the $1.25 billion Faena District development.
The project itself includes 169 guestrooms, 13 suites and a Penthouse with rooftop private terrace. The hotel boasts a specialist Cabaret theatre with five additional food and beverage venues, not to mention the lobby décor includes a 24-karat, gold-plated, woolly mammoth sculpture by Damien Hirst. Faena wanted to combine dreams with reality and create a celebration of collaboration between the building itself and the interior design.
The scale of the project was not without its challenges. In bringing the old Saxony back to life, high end finishes ranging from gold leaf to specially commissioned murals by artist Juan Gatti, were incorporated into the final design. This required procurement and collaboration on an international scale, where G&T undertook factory checks to ensure the end product met specifications before being shipped for installation.
One of the largest challenges encountered in the refurbishment was the hidden and unforeseen conditions of the structure. A significant amount of concrete restoration and exterior façade work was required to get the building to completion. In order to mitigate exposure on this work, G&T worked closely with the design team to ensure only essential upgrade work was undertaken and costs remained within budget.
The Saxony Hotel was designed and delivered by an international team of consultants. To achieve this, a significant amount of onsite resource was put in place to coordinate the design, management of the proposal process and a complete understanding of the client vision for this particular ‘one of a kind’ product.