The Delano

What It Is

The Delano is a Collins Avenue hotel housed in a 1940s Art Deco tower designed by Robert Swartburg, crowned by a distinctive winged finial. Its fame, though, comes from the mid-1990s, when hotelier Ian Schrager and designer Philippe Starck reopened it as a study in theatrical minimalism — billowing white curtains, an oversized lobby that flowed to an infinity-edge pool, oddball furniture, and a deliberately surreal mood. The redesign was a sharp counterpoint to the neon-and-pastel Deco revival happening on Ocean Drive, and it instantly became one of the most talked-about hotels in the country.

Why It Matters

The Delano was the design statement of the South Beach renaissance. Where the Art Deco district sold nostalgia, the Delano sold cosmopolitan, almost European cool, and it pulled fashion, music, and celebrity crowds along with it. It helped prove that Miami Beach could compete with New York and Los Angeles as a tastemaking capital, not just a sun destination. That repositioning — selling Miami as a global luxury brand rather than a regional resort — is a direct ancestor of the LatAm-capital era's appetite for high-design hotels and condos.

Neighborhoods: Miami Beach Eras: The Versace / South Beach Renaissance Related people: Robert Swartburg