Renovating Deco No Easy Thing
Miami architecture firm Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates has been tasked with the restoration and redesign of Kimpton’s The Angler’s Hotel (below), The Fountainebleu Miami Beach (North Tower), and The Versailles, located in the new Faena District. NBWW partner Donald Wolfe tells us the greatest challenges in such restoration work are integrating current building code requirements--including ADA/accessibility codes--and re-creating original material finishes in fabrics, tile and other period materials.
The firm is no stranger to polishing some local deco buildings, including the restoration of the Morris Lapidus-designed Fontainebleau, Eden Roc, Loews the DiLido (now Ritz-Carlton South Beach), and the newly opened Ian Schrager hotel, The Edition Miami Beach. “In add-on projects, such as the North Tower addition to the Fontainebleau Miami Beach, adapting current structural and environmental engineering is extremely challenging, especially from a business point of view, if there’s a need to close a portion of the hotel down,” Donald says.
