As Faena Hotel Miami Beach celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, it still defies expectations. Its red-saturated design radiates drama. Showstopping art includes Damien Hirst’s glass-encased 10-foot-tall gilded wooly mammoth skeleton standing guard in the courtyard. Its world-class restaurants are helmed by well-known chefs. The property even has its own theater inspired by European grand opera houses.
Ever since Argentine visionary Alan Faena opened his first property, Four-Star Faena Buenos Aires, in 2004, he’s focused on building culture and entertainment hubs with hotels at their center. His third project, the 120-room Faena New York, will be an important addition to the brand when it debuts in August overlooking the High Line.
As the Miami Beach outpost celebrates a decade of over-the-top decadence, we revisit the mold-breaking hotel.
Art and Design
The Miami Beach hotel looks like the setting of a Baz Luhrmann movie, given its rich colors and more-is-more sensibility. That’s because the Elvis and Moulin Rouge! director and his wife, Catherine Martin, an Academy Award-winning costume designer, helped Faena bring his visual ambitions to life — a maximalist masterpiece that might make Jay Gatsby blush.
The drama begins in the “Cathedral” entryway, where gold leafing coats the ceiling and massive pillars like divine armor. Lining the walls is Buenos Aires artist Juan Gatti’s The Way to Futopia, eight large-scale, site-specific murals. Gatti, who designed the graphic art for Pedro Almodóvar’s films, depicts the Faena mystique through religious and tropical imagery that explores themes of love, war, knowledge, passion and nature. His work sets the stage for what’s to come elsewhere on the property.
Mixed in with this bold art and design are art deco vestiges of the building’s former incarnation as the Saxony Hotel in the 1950s and ’60s, when Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra and Elvis frequented the hot spot. Hallways, for example, have terrazzo flooring, curved edges and rounded doorways that provide a stately counterpoint to Faena’s flamboyance.
Food and Drinks
The culinary options alone are worth a visit to Faena. At Four-Star Pao by Paul Qui, it’s easy to get dazzled by the shiny gold dome ceiling or Damien Hirst’s Golden Myth, a bronze and gold leaf unicorn with half its muscles and tissues exposed that stands above the booths. But the real showstoppers are the Filipino chef’s plates of flavorful Asian fusion cuisine, including kinilaw, a fresh Filipino version of ceviche with Key West snapper, heart of palm, coconut milk, coconut vinegar, apple and grapefruit; grilled eggplant that gets a flavor makeover with brown butter, parmigiano reggiano, mustard seed caviar, pickled mushroom, eggplant miso, English pea and beetroot; and addictive crunchy fried chicken coated in sweet chili sauce and topped with jalapeño and Thai herbs. And for dessert, the savory-sweet corn ice cream sando is a must with gooey Mexican cajeta (similar to dulce de leche) and garrotxa cheese.
For a more exclusive experience, try Qui’s El Secreto Omakase, a hidden jewel box of a space that glows in black and gold. There are only six seats and two nightly seatings Thursday to Saturday for tasting menus that are dictated by the seasons and the whims of the chef.
Los Fuegos By Francis Mallmann showcases the South American chef’s live-fire grilling. In the red and leopard-print dining room, start with the wood-oven empanada, stuffed with shredded beef, and move on to the chicken salad, which gets smoky flavors from wood-fired free-range chicken and roasted lettuce. It’s also topped with hazelnuts, bookmark-sized slices of Parmigiano Reggiano, fried shallots and a hazelnut-pistachio dressing. Or go for the succulent angus skirt steak with Criolla sauce and chimichurri.
If you’re there on a Sunday, don’t miss the asado. Made for a minimum of two people, the carnivorous feast trots out family-style platters of rib-eye, branzino, chorizo and more, along with sides like crispy artichoke and roasted sweet potato. You can watch it all being cooked in a towering, metal tree-shaped barbecue grill with everything from pineapple to leeks to meat hanging over the fire pit in the center.
If you want a drink, the bar adjoining Los Fuegos, The Living Room, continues the animal-print-and-red aesthetic and serves Faena Spritzes (Absolut Elyx Vodka, G.H. Mumm Grand Cordon Brut Champagne, Aperol, hibiscus and rose water) to a dressed-to-impress Miami crowd. For a more exclusive atmosphere, the speakeasy-like Saxony Bar hides within the hotel. The late-night bar looks like it’s out of Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, with the venue coated in shiny black and gold. Get some fresh air outside at Tree of Life, an underwater fantasy with columns covered in shells and the bar’s teal tiles showing red coral, crabs and other aquatic life.
Spa-ing and Swimming
The hotel’s Four-Star spa, Tierra Santa Healing House, drew inspiration from a beach house in Punta del Este on the Uruguayan coast, but don’t expect a beach shack aesthetic. The vibe is as vibrant as the rest of the property: rainbow hues saturate the stone chandelier and the carpet in the spa lobby, and vivid patterns of cherry red and teal cover the relaxation lounge and treatment rooms.
Come an hour before your service to start your pampering in the white-marble-filled wet spa, whose facilities include a waterfall shower, a eucalyptus steam room, a sauna, an ice chamber, a tepidarium with heated stone loungers and one of the largest hammams on the East Coast. And nosh on tropical bites like star fruit and rambutan while sipping peppermint tea.
The 22,000-square-foot space incorporates shamanic therapies (like the one featuring pranic healing, palo santo incense and sound bowls) and modern services (Biologique Recherche’s Triple-Lift Advanced Facial). We opted for the Ábrete Corazon Cacao Relaxing Massage, a soothing 60-minute session that uses anti-inflammatory and antioxidant-rich cacao to banish stress.
Find more oases outside, where an art deco-inspired geometric pool is lined with red chaise lounges and palm trees. Or opt for the 100,000-square-foot strip of sand fronting the hotel. Sit under the red-and-white-striped umbrellas, and beach butlers will cater to your every need.
Theater
The luxury hotel anchors the Faena District, a city-designated six-block area along Collins Avenue that includes Faena Bazaar, a luxury shopping mall, and Faena Forum, a 43,000-square-foot, circular events space, both designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning Rem Koolhaas. One entertainment venue is inside Faena Miami Beach: an intimate 150-seat theater bathed in crimson. It’s the only Miami hotel with a working theater.
Open year-round, the stage has hosted the likes of Madonna, Billy Joel, Alicia Keys and Bon Jovi. The Amazon Prime series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel also shot scenes there. However, the theater also stages original productions. Its latest is a reimagining of Carmen that mixes flamenco, cabaret, fire arts, cirque nouveau, live music and the stylings of Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Bita from Andalucía, Spain.
The Rooms
Like the rest of the hotel, the 179 rooms eschew boring and beige in favor of riveting and red. In a suite living room, a large artwork with a red blimp that says, “God Bless La Florida” hangs over a red velvet sofa. Gold palm trees serve as lamp bases. And in the bathroom, gray herringbone tile covers the walls, while teal herringbone coats the floors. Of course, there are requisite touches of crimson, from the Tierra Santa bath products to the round ottoman next to the inviting deep-soaking tub.
A standout is the 14,507-square-foot, two-story Faena Penthouse — one of the largest in North America with five bedrooms, three kitchens and nine bathrooms. Beyoncé and Jay-Z have stayed in this opulent space, whose full-sized living and dining rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the beach and a piano, and a sprawling terrace sits under the big “FAENA” letters at the top of the building that glow gold at night.
