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The new Standard Hotel, Miami, André Balazs’s renovation of
the former Lido Spa on Belle Isle, is as much a spa as it is a hotel. Mr.
Balazs said that it was inspired in part by his adolescence, which he spent in
Sweden – where the sauna is central to daily life – and in part by the
10th Street Russian and Turkish Baths in Manhattan, which he
has always loved, “all gnarly as they are.”
Shawn Hausman, a production designer in Ojai, Calif., who has designed the
interiors of all of Mr. Balazs’s Standard hotels – Miami is the third –
said he drew on both “light and airy” Scandinavian design and the colors of
southern Florida in creating the spa’s interiors.
The manicure and pedicure room, top left, has fake red leather seats set against
a saturated blue background that echoes the view of the Miami sky and Biscayne
Bay seem from the room. In the circular skylit Wall of Sound shower room,
top right, the showers are mini-waterfalls, and speakers play recordings of
ambient sounds like the waterfalls, and speakers play recordings of ambient
sounds like the wind wooshing through trees and crickets chirping, as well as
rock ‘n’ roll.
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The Scandinavian influence shows up in the pale ash used for the slatted walls
and ceiling (similar to the slatted wood found in saunas) in a hallway, above
left, leading from the spa check-in desk to the entrance of the hammam, which
includes a marble steam room.
The bar, above right, has walls covered in beige wool, set off with mid-century
modern chairs by the Danish designer Ole Wanscher newly upholstered in
red-orange wool, and leads through the entrance on the right to the hotel’s
sun-filled restaurant, where Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin is the
chef.
“The bar doesn’t have windows,” Mr. Hausman said. “It’s more of a refuge
away from the sun.” Rooms are $195 to $750 a night. The hotel is at
40 Island Avenue, Miami Beach, (305) 673-1717.
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