“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller

MIAMI OLD AND NEW So many wonderful discoveries can be found around the Miami Design District. A great mix of old and new with many of the buildings incorporating original architecture and interiors into new builds, like these tiles from the 1950’s. A #conciergechoice for design finds, put the Miami Design District on your list.

MIAMI OLD AND NEW

So many wonderful discoveries can be found around the Miami Design District. A great mix of old and new with many of the buildings incorporating original architecture and interiors into new builds, like these tiles from the 1950’s. A #conciergechoice for design finds, put the Miami Design District on your list.

MIAMI’S JAPANESE GARDEN This image is of the pavement at Ichimura Miami Japanese Garden, one of our favorite small finds and perhaps one of the least known but oldest sights in Miami. Well known landscape architect Lester Collins Pancoast and architect Thorn Grafton worked cooperatively with the Japanese Consul and The Friends of the Japanese Garden to redesign and reconstruct the Ichimura Miami-Japan Garden to this new location on Watson Island (the garden and its history goes all the way back to 1957). The Garden is open during the day for public gathering, classes, cultural exchange and passive enjoyment. A little oasis of calm and a favorite #conciergechoice when visiting Miami.

MIAMI’S JAPANESE GARDEN

This image is of the pavement at Ichimura Miami Japanese Garden, one of our favorite small finds and perhaps one of the least known but oldest sights in Miami. Well known landscape architect Lester Collins Pancoast and architect Thorn Grafton worked cooperatively with the Japanese Consul and The Friends of the Japanese Garden to redesign and reconstruct the Ichimura Miami-Japan Garden to this new location on Watson Island (the garden and its history goes all the way back to 1957). The Garden is open during the day for public gathering, classes, cultural exchange and passive enjoyment. A little oasis of calm and a favorite #conciergechoice when visiting Miami.

MIAMI ARCHITECTURE  There will never be a more perfect Miami monument than the original Bacardi headquarters on Biscayne Boulevard, a modernism-can-be-fun masterpiece designed by Cuban architect Enrique Gutierrez in 1963. Gutierrez had worked with Mies van der Rohe on the Bacardi headquarters in Mexico City. When Bacardi’s planned 1959 van der Rohe offices in Cuba fell apart with the onset of Fidel Castro’s leadership, the Gutierrez complex in Miami was the building that brought the best part of Cuba— joyful, colorful and elegant—to this city. Read more about the building here, and see it for yourself on your next trip to Sofitel Miami. 

MIAMI ARCHITECTURE 

There will never be a more perfect Miami monument than the original Bacardi headquarters on Biscayne Boulevard, a modernism-can-be-fun masterpiece designed by Cuban architect Enrique Gutierrez in 1963. Gutierrez had worked with Mies van der Rohe on the Bacardi headquarters in Mexico City. When Bacardi’s planned 1959 van der Rohe offices in Cuba fell apart with the onset of Fidel Castro’s leadership, the Gutierrez complex in Miami was the building that brought the best part of Cuba— joyful, colorful and elegant—to this city. Read more about the building here, and see it for yourself on your next trip to Sofitel Miami. 

Reblogged from Architecture & Design Photography by Ken Hayden 

BONJOUR HERMES The now iconic logo of Hermes was designed and introduced in the early 1950s. It comprises of a Duc carriage which is attached to a horse, perhaps interpreting the company’s humble origins as a horse saddlery manufacturer. But what do we love most about the logo? That it’s now see on the front of another #Miami boutique in Miami, with Hermes now open in the Miami Design District (as pictured). 

BONJOUR HERMES

The now iconic logo of Hermes was designed and introduced in the early 1950s. It comprises of a Duc carriage which is attached to a horse, perhaps interpreting the company’s humble origins as a horse saddlery manufacturer. But what do we love most about the logo? That it’s now see on the front of another #Miami boutique in Miami, with Hermes now open in the Miami Design District (as pictured). 

FLOWERING MIAMI The first flower many people think of when visiting South Florida is a hibiscus. They usually have the single red tropical hibiscus in mind, because they’ve seen them in pictures and movies countless times. The truth is, hibiscus is a very large family of plants and comes in a variety of shapes and colors. Although native to Hawaii not Florida, the largest growing and crafting of the variety is undertaken around Florida, with Miami alone contains more than 300 varieties! The permitter of the lagoon around Sofitel Miami (above) contains more than 10 different types currently in bloom. 

FLOWERING MIAMI

The first flower many people think of when visiting South Florida is a hibiscus. They usually have the single red tropical hibiscus in mind, because they’ve seen them in pictures and movies countless times. The truth is, hibiscus is a very large family of plants and comes in a variety of shapes and colors. Although native to Hawaii not Florida, the largest growing and crafting of the variety is undertaken around Florida, with Miami alone contains more than 300 varieties! The permitter of the lagoon around Sofitel Miami (above) contains more than 10 different types currently in bloom. 

HOTEL INSIDER Its hard to argue that the pastry team at Sofitel Miami have mastered the art of ‘fabulousness’.

HOTEL INSIDER

Its hard to argue that the pastry team at Sofitel Miami have mastered the art of ‘fabulousness’.

LE GRAND AMOUR Miami’s premiere art cinema - The Miami Beach Cinematheque - is screening the films of Pierre Etaix this month. A French comedy master whose films went unseen for decades as a result of legal tangles, director-actor Etaix is a treasure the cinematic world has rediscovered and embraced with relish. His short- and feature-length films in the 1960s (which even won him an Academy Award) were influenced by Etaix’s experiences as a circus acrobat and clown and by the silent film comedies he adored. This week see our pick “Grand Amour”  - but the entire film series is a ‘must see’ for fans of classic cinema. 

LE GRAND AMOUR

Miami’s premiere art cinema - The Miami Beach Cinematheque - is screening the films of Pierre Etaix this month. A French comedy master whose films went unseen for decades as a result of legal tangles, director-actor Etaix is a treasure the cinematic world has rediscovered and embraced with relish. His short- and feature-length films in the 1960s (which even won him an Academy Award) were influenced by Etaix’s experiences as a circus acrobat and clown and by the silent film comedies he adored. This week see our pick “Grand Amour”  - but the entire film series is a ‘must see’ for fans of classic cinema. 

O, MIAMI Who said Miami was all about beaches and sunshine? O, Miami is a brilliant biennial poetry festival in Miami that creates a series of events and projects with the simple goal of every person and visitor in Miami finding a poem during the month of April (in a very cool ‘Miami’ way mind you). Mixing traditional readings with innovative poetry-in-public-places projects, the festival weaves poetry into the fabric of the city’s existing infrastructure and cultural life. Check our events listing here. 

O, MIAMI

Who said Miami was all about beaches and sunshine? O, Miami is a brilliant biennial poetry festival in Miami that creates a series of events and projects with the simple goal of every person and visitor in Miami finding a poem during the month of April (in a very cool ‘Miami’ way mind you). Mixing traditional readings with innovative poetry-in-public-places projects, the festival weaves poetry into the fabric of the city’s existing infrastructure and cultural life. Check our events listing here. 

MIAMI DESIGN DISTRICT The Miami Design District always has a magnifique calendar of upcoming events.  This month one of our favorite finds is the Locust Projects’ Spring Fling Fundraiser, with a silent art auction featuring cutting-edge artworks by leading contemporary visual artists as well as items from Art Basel Miami Beach, Marni, Ralph Lauren, Tod’s, Etro, Oscar de la Renta, Stella McCartney and many more. If you cannot make the event may we suggest the Miami Design District as the  perfect Miami destination with over 130 art galleries, showrooms, creative services, architecture firms, stores, antiques dealers, eateries and bars.

MIAMI DESIGN DISTRICT

The Miami Design District always has a magnifique calendar of upcoming events.  This month one of our favorite finds is the Locust Projects’ Spring Fling Fundraiser, with a silent art auction featuring cutting-edge artworks by leading contemporary visual artists as well as items from Art Basel Miami Beach, Marni, Ralph Lauren, Tod’s, Etro, Oscar de la Renta, Stella McCartney and many more. If you cannot make the event may we suggest the Miami Design District as the  perfect Miami destination with over 130 art galleries, showrooms, creative services, architecture firms, stores, antiques dealers, eateries and bars.