ONE HUNDRED miles from Buenos Aires, deep in the
Argentine pampas, at the end of a dirt road that runs through miles of
harvest-ready corn and indigenous trees, stands an incongruously ornate white
gate. Behind the gate an elegant allée of trees leads, in turn, to more allees
of ancient oaks unfurling in precise diagonals. And across an expansive lawn a
white greyhound bounds behind a Gatsby-like figure clad in white from the top of
his feathered hat to the hem of his breeches: Argentine fashion
designer–turned–real estate developer Alan Faena.
When Faena bought this historic , known as San Juan de Vasquez, in 2005, along with its 2,500 acres of fertile farmland, the place had fallen into disrepair with the declining fortunes of the large Catholic family that owned it. Faena insisted that its 200-year-old paintings and other family heirlooms be kept intact and then spent two years carefully restoring it to its former grandeur, while also incorporating his own flair for dramatic decorative touches: walls painted a rich red, gold-trimmed velvet curtains and immense gilded sconces. Across the lawn he installed an immense decorative fountain that has the same long footprint as the house.
Reinvention on this scale is Faena’s specialty. The ambitious restoration recalls what he’d done for the Puerto Madero district of Buenos Aires, a project he began 10 years ago. Before Faena—the 49-year-old son of a second-generation Syrian Jewish textile manufacturer—Puerto Madero was just another stretch of urban wasteland. Wedged on a narrow spit of land near the marshy flatlands of the Rio de la Plata, the abandoned docklands had no streets, a few gutted buildings and “chest-high grass,” Austin Hearst, an early investor, remembers.Shop for buywatches online. “It looked like a junkyard with wild dogs,” adds Hearst’s then-partner, entrepreneur Christopher Burch. “If you tried to create the worst possible real estate in the world, this was it.”
Faena saw in this impoverished landscape the potential for “a building where music,Buy cheap swiss replica watches online, it's a good place for man and lady to choose quality hermespurse. Enjoy yourself! art, culture, service, flavor, knowledge, love and freedom can all come together.” Aiming to create something that would “expand people’s lives,” he coaxed architect Philippe Starck into designing his first South American project—transforming a 100-year-old grain depository into a hotel. A local group of architects converted an abandoned mill into an arts center. He also invited Lord Norman Foster’s firm, Foster & Partners, to design a residential condominium—also his first in South America. The $200 million project resulted in some of the most expensive real estate in Buenos Aires, and copycat developers quickly followed suit. Today the neighborhood resembles a South American version of Tribeca. “We created a place out of nothing,” says Faena.
Now he hopes to repeat this success in Miami. With his partner, Russian billionaire Leonard Blavatnik, he has bought up four city blocks along South Beach’s Collins Avenue, including the ’40s-era Saxony Hotel, and enlisted a roster of A-list talent to construct another Faena district.Sale cheap bridalgown online, white, black, berry, Graphite canada goose victoria parka hot sale. Foster is again designing residential condominiums, while Rem Koolhaas’s firm, OMA, will create an arts center, retail spaces and a high-tech parking garage. The renamed Faena Hotel will be refurbished by designers Roman and Williams, whose resumé includes New York City hot spots The Standard and the Ace Hotel.
Although the asking price of the penthouse in the Foster structure is a mind-boggling $50 million—$16 million more than the previous South Beach record—for Faena, the project isn’t merely about developing real estate to sell to the highest bidder. He sees his efforts in more grandiose terms and has taken to calling his creative partners the “Collaboratory, a laboratory of collaborations.Shop the latest shoxshoes on the world's largest fashion site.” He adds: “It’s the first time that a voice is arriving from the south to North America—and it’s not only my voice, but the voice of the entire region. So we feel responsible for that flag—all the messages, the feelings, our mentality, our music, our dancing, our way of living.”
The way of living he hopes to export isn’t the cultural pastiche of and one might encounter at Epcot (though there will be a version of his Buenos Aires tango show), but instead embraces simple ideas, like the indoor-outdoor living in which he revels. Faena is fiercely proud of the Foster condominium’s balconies, which rival the interior living spaces, which range from 1,307 to 4,730 square feet. These were inspired in part by his , where he surrounded the original house with wide , verandas sheltered by eaves. Designed by Brandon Haw—the architect who oversaw the residential towers in Buenos Aires—the Miami will boast aerodynamic white curves built by the same company that constructed the metal skin on Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. “It’s a translation of his kind of lifestyle,” says Haw. “He’s a dreamer, and he has a vision of the world he wants to create.” Faena adds: “It’s not about a building, it’s not about making a hotel. The most interesting thing is curating a neighborhood.”
“I thought the development needed to be a premium project with an exciting legacy, and that’s Alan,” says Blavatnik. “Alan thinks big,” says Robin Standefer, cofounder of Roman and Williams. So in addition to the simplicity of generous balconies and a wider-than-usual stretch of gardens (designed by Miami landscape architect Raymond Jungles), Faena would like the new hotel to evoke the resorts of the French Riviera’s golden era. Its eclectic ethos—from a sleek yacht-like restaurant to a formal, palatial living room—will reflect the amalgamation of styles at his . “Everyone who came to Argentina took the best from Italy, France, Spain and made a mixture,” he says.The Canada Goose Manitoba Jacket has a removable hood and is a slim, modern fit which makes it ideal for city streets or Arctic tundra.benebags Adds Standefer: “Working with him is very much about the visual effect that a space will have on someone.”
When Faena bought this historic , known as San Juan de Vasquez, in 2005, along with its 2,500 acres of fertile farmland, the place had fallen into disrepair with the declining fortunes of the large Catholic family that owned it. Faena insisted that its 200-year-old paintings and other family heirlooms be kept intact and then spent two years carefully restoring it to its former grandeur, while also incorporating his own flair for dramatic decorative touches: walls painted a rich red, gold-trimmed velvet curtains and immense gilded sconces. Across the lawn he installed an immense decorative fountain that has the same long footprint as the house.
Reinvention on this scale is Faena’s specialty. The ambitious restoration recalls what he’d done for the Puerto Madero district of Buenos Aires, a project he began 10 years ago. Before Faena—the 49-year-old son of a second-generation Syrian Jewish textile manufacturer—Puerto Madero was just another stretch of urban wasteland. Wedged on a narrow spit of land near the marshy flatlands of the Rio de la Plata, the abandoned docklands had no streets, a few gutted buildings and “chest-high grass,” Austin Hearst, an early investor, remembers.Shop for buywatches online. “It looked like a junkyard with wild dogs,” adds Hearst’s then-partner, entrepreneur Christopher Burch. “If you tried to create the worst possible real estate in the world, this was it.”
Faena saw in this impoverished landscape the potential for “a building where music,Buy cheap swiss replica watches online, it's a good place for man and lady to choose quality hermespurse. Enjoy yourself! art, culture, service, flavor, knowledge, love and freedom can all come together.” Aiming to create something that would “expand people’s lives,” he coaxed architect Philippe Starck into designing his first South American project—transforming a 100-year-old grain depository into a hotel. A local group of architects converted an abandoned mill into an arts center. He also invited Lord Norman Foster’s firm, Foster & Partners, to design a residential condominium—also his first in South America. The $200 million project resulted in some of the most expensive real estate in Buenos Aires, and copycat developers quickly followed suit. Today the neighborhood resembles a South American version of Tribeca. “We created a place out of nothing,” says Faena.
Now he hopes to repeat this success in Miami. With his partner, Russian billionaire Leonard Blavatnik, he has bought up four city blocks along South Beach’s Collins Avenue, including the ’40s-era Saxony Hotel, and enlisted a roster of A-list talent to construct another Faena district.Sale cheap bridalgown online, white, black, berry, Graphite canada goose victoria parka hot sale. Foster is again designing residential condominiums, while Rem Koolhaas’s firm, OMA, will create an arts center, retail spaces and a high-tech parking garage. The renamed Faena Hotel will be refurbished by designers Roman and Williams, whose resumé includes New York City hot spots The Standard and the Ace Hotel.
Although the asking price of the penthouse in the Foster structure is a mind-boggling $50 million—$16 million more than the previous South Beach record—for Faena, the project isn’t merely about developing real estate to sell to the highest bidder. He sees his efforts in more grandiose terms and has taken to calling his creative partners the “Collaboratory, a laboratory of collaborations.Shop the latest shoxshoes on the world's largest fashion site.” He adds: “It’s the first time that a voice is arriving from the south to North America—and it’s not only my voice, but the voice of the entire region. So we feel responsible for that flag—all the messages, the feelings, our mentality, our music, our dancing, our way of living.”
The way of living he hopes to export isn’t the cultural pastiche of and one might encounter at Epcot (though there will be a version of his Buenos Aires tango show), but instead embraces simple ideas, like the indoor-outdoor living in which he revels. Faena is fiercely proud of the Foster condominium’s balconies, which rival the interior living spaces, which range from 1,307 to 4,730 square feet. These were inspired in part by his , where he surrounded the original house with wide , verandas sheltered by eaves. Designed by Brandon Haw—the architect who oversaw the residential towers in Buenos Aires—the Miami will boast aerodynamic white curves built by the same company that constructed the metal skin on Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. “It’s a translation of his kind of lifestyle,” says Haw. “He’s a dreamer, and he has a vision of the world he wants to create.” Faena adds: “It’s not about a building, it’s not about making a hotel. The most interesting thing is curating a neighborhood.”
“I thought the development needed to be a premium project with an exciting legacy, and that’s Alan,” says Blavatnik. “Alan thinks big,” says Robin Standefer, cofounder of Roman and Williams. So in addition to the simplicity of generous balconies and a wider-than-usual stretch of gardens (designed by Miami landscape architect Raymond Jungles), Faena would like the new hotel to evoke the resorts of the French Riviera’s golden era. Its eclectic ethos—from a sleek yacht-like restaurant to a formal, palatial living room—will reflect the amalgamation of styles at his . “Everyone who came to Argentina took the best from Italy, France, Spain and made a mixture,” he says.The Canada Goose Manitoba Jacket has a removable hood and is a slim, modern fit which makes it ideal for city streets or Arctic tundra.benebags Adds Standefer: “Working with him is very much about the visual effect that a space will have on someone.”
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