The original one-story house on this site dated back to 1959 and was a two-bedroom, two-bath home with an attached Garage by Don Reif and Associates, a prolific local firm that designed many MiMo buildings throughout Miami Beach and Bay Harbor Islands post WWII. A modest structure, it had since suffered an anodyne rear addition, and its sprawling floor plan distribution had a lot of room for improvement. The front façade, however, had a clear sequence of access and featured a striking gable with pronounced overhangs distinctive to the house.

We applied for and obtained a Determination of Architectural Significance for it, before anything else, so that we could move forward adding a new second story to the structure. This was essential to fit in the additional program by the owner and impossible to achieve otherwise. Needless to say, we would preserve the typological elements that identified the original building and design all new ones in a sympathetic fashion. The resulting house keeps the front façade _after removal of non-original trims and addition of discrete shade devices on the ground floor window_, the first twenty feet or so of roof with said gable and overhangs, and the whole sidewalls to the North and South. Everything else is new…

The thus provided second floor steps back to avoid visually overpowering the original house façade below. Since it was meant to include the new Master Bedroom suite only, it was shaped rather narrowly to fit with the new arrangement of bedrooms and baths underneath, as well as achieve both street and golf course exposure and natural cross ventilation. The new roof and trellis, covering the Master Bedroom suite and the house-long terrace next to it, keep the same angle and shape as the original distinctive gable, but neatly turn down as a wing wall on one side and cantilever on the other. Wooden screens act as a shade device to the windows, while also wrapping the corner and tying down with the Ground Floor.

Once inside, the new floor plan welcomes one with a large, diaphanous Grand Room. Living, dining, and family gathering spaces revolve around the new kitchen and its generous island. The kitchen itself is separated from the stairway behind by a glass partition, allowing plenty of daylight from the Second Floor terrace storefront that bounces off into the room from the myriad glass mosaics on the stairway wall. In the backyard, the second floor roof above the terrace stretches out, creating a double-height outdoor Living Room by the pool with a spiral stair to the side for convenient party access. A wooden screen achieves heightened privacy on the North side. The ground floor closes with a Junior Master Bedroom suite facing the pool and La Gorce golf course, with a mostly white master bath as well as two smaller bedrooms with baths en-suite, and a powder room. Upstairs, a change in level reinforces the distinction between the most private sanctum and the extroverted terrace _Jacuzzi, outdoor kitchen and all_, small second powder room, and glazed vestibule/seating area in what is, in effect, a very glitzy and fun Miami Beach party house.