Miami’s dreamiest new hotels

Sep

Design Guide

Miami’s dreamiest new hotels

Miami is a hotel heaven. We cannot tell one single favorite. However, Miami Design Agenda wants to present you a list of those we believe that are the Miami’ Dreamiest New Hotels! Here, a look at the best new and soon-to-open spots, which offer something for every type of fun-and-sun-seeking traveler.

AC Hotel by Marriott Miami Beach

A high-style, lower-price Spanish outfit recently acquired by Marriott, AC will make its American debut in April with this 150-room new-build property on Collins Avenue, just across from the beach.

Like Starwood’s Aloft, AC focuses on engaging communal spaces. In Miami, this means turning the AC Lounge into a hub of activity, with drinks and small plates created in collaboration with local vendors; bartenders, meanwhile, have been trained to act as concierge-style insider city guides.

Open to guests, visitors and Miami Beach residents alike, the eighth-floor rooftop pool will make a similar splash on the South Floridian social scene with its ocean views.

Shelborne Wyndham Grand South Beach

Originally built in 1940 and updated in the ‘50s by the master of Miami Modern, Morris Lapidus, this Collins Avenue icon reopened in September following a $90 million, 14-month renovation and restoration. Reimagined by rising hospitality-design specialist Meg Sharpe and aesthetic arbiter Richard Mishaan, the 200-room property boasts a restaurant by sushi star Masaharu Morimoto; a spa with products from local skin-care guru Dr. Oscar Hevia; and an epically scaled pool, whose floating beach chairs, roving drinks cart and private cabanas are already seeing plenty of action.

Metropolitan by COMO, Miami Beach

This 74-room stay opened in a 1930s art deco landmark in June, after a six-month soft opening. Its position at 24th Street, a bit north of South Beach’s bustle and buzz, gives the place — designed in soothing tones of mint green, pale gray and white by award-winning Milan architect Paola Navone — the feeling of a quiet retreat.

The vibe continues at its serene, guest-only beachside pool and its eighth-floor rooftop spa, where an al fresco hydrotherapy pool overlooking the ocean complements the four windowed treatment rooms. The hotel is the first US satellite of the ultraluxe, Singapore-based COMO resort group.

But Metropolitan keeps Miami in focus with a Floridian seafood-focused restaurant, a juice bar and the Gin Club, featuring cocktails made from 30 varieties of the eponymous spirit.

Miami Beach Edition

This third property born from Marriott’s collaboration with hip-hotel impresario Ian Schrager landed on 29th Street and Collins this fall, bringing with it a cool, laid-back vibe and a serious emphasis on fun.

Beyond the 294 rooms, suites and bungalows designed by interiors masters Yabu Pushelberg, the Edition boasts a bowling alley, an ice-skating rink, a nightclub with state-of-the-art sound and lighting systems, and a restaurant from multi-Michelin-starred Jean-Georges Vongerichten. It also claims the only lobby bar in Miami Beach with ocean views.

Aloft Hotel South Beach

With this March 2015 debut, Starwood will extend Aloft (its contemporary-casual, relatively wallet-friendly brand) into resort territory.

The hotel willparticularly promote its highly social public spaces (including an eatery from Philly-based restauranteur Stephen Starr called The Continental), designed to foster easy interaction between guests.

The modern style of the 235 loftlike rooms incorporates art deco and nautical touches, while the hotel’s location — on the southern tip of Lake Pancoast, in the middle of the narrow island that is Miami Beach — provides a surprising alternative to more typical beachfront stays.