A Miami Fontainebleau of Sorts

The Fontainebleau Miami is rising. I am not talking about the reinvention of the famous Miami Beach hotel, but rather the sudden emergence of a palatial 14-acre estate on the southwestern fringes of Miami-Dade County. After a brief Miami-Dade property search, it turns out that the home belongs to one of the area’s top skyscraper designers; Charles Sieger, designer of the urban 50 Biscayne, ultra luxurious Apogee condominium in SOBE, and revolutionary Portofino tower, among other projects. It is a paradox to see one of the area’s top condominium designers, a proponent for urban life I would assume, build a sprawling mansion on land situated outside of the urban development boundary.

The house itself is set back quite a distance from the street. I drove by recently catching this glimpse, perplexed that a house in this area could be built with such a short setback. I turned around and drove by again, realizing that this was only a “guardhouse” of sorts and that the “real” mansion lay somewhere behind a few acres of well manicured gardens, obelisks, and fountains. This area is no stranger to oversized palaces as we noted back in April in a post, which incidentally featured a picture of the entrance to this estate.

I assume the home is modeled after the famous Fontainebleau in Fontainebleau, France, the same location where Charles Sieger studied in 1968 at the Ecoles D’Art Americaines according to his resume.

7 Responses to “A Miami Fontainebleau of Sorts”

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1 Anonymous
Jan 4th, 2008 at 10:41 am

Why all of these builders working in the tropics find inspiration from temperate regions if beyond me. If you want an estate why not look to the Kampon for inspiration or Fairchild (the old buildings). Tropical plants dont do topiary well as you can see from the pic. In Europe the topiary plants Box and Yew live for centuries here Yew is dead in a few hours and Box less than a year.
2 Anonymous
Jan 4th, 2008 at 6:14 pm

One word. Gaudy.
3 Anonymous
Jan 4th, 2008 at 7:46 pm

Hamptons of the South.
4 William
Jan 5th, 2008 at 2:32 am

That’s no Hamptons my friend, that’s trash!
5 Anonymous
Jan 5th, 2008 at 2:57 am

And the difference is…..? Its not on the coast?
Its the same thing, rural Mansions where high profile people live and go to vacation.
6 Dave
Jan 7th, 2008 at 6:16 pm

Looks like Ronald MacDonald’s idea of Versailles! This guy should have his architect’s license revoked. Meanwhile, everyone looks the other way when a historic building is torn down.
7 Gabriel J. Lopez-Bernal
Jan 9th, 2008 at 1:09 am

I can’t possibly imagine how much water will be wasted annually to maintain the landscaping…What a waste…!

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