Marcel Wanders Designs Miami's Mondrian

As his multipart empire expands into the U.S., Marcel Wanders's moment has come. He's riding it for all it's worth.

BY Linda Tischler | October 1, 2008

Kickin' It: Astride a prop horse given to him by British filmmaker Peter Greenaway, Wanders roams the design landscape. | photograph by Jake Chessum

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SoBe-autiful: A swooping laser-cut steel staircase will serve as the centerpiece for the lobby of the Wanders-designed $200 million Mondrian in South Beach, opening in December. | rendering by Marcel Wanders Studio

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photograph by Jake Chessum

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In early December, in that weird social vacuum between Thanksgiving and Christmas, there's no more glorious place to be than Miami. That's when the planet's art-loving high rollers, and the scenesters who follow in their rarefied wake, descend on the city for the annual festival-cum-bacchanal Art Basel Miami Beach.

Party central for these seasonal migrants -- many of whom couldn't tell a Francis Bacon from a Kevin Bacon -- is the hotel scene on South Beach, where late-night revelers repair to the pool bars at the Delano or the Raleigh to toss back mojitos in the name of art. But this year, the epicenter is likely to shift to the $200 million Mondrian in South Beach, which will have its grand opening during the fair. The fanciful, exuberantly patterned confection, a 335-room hotel-and-condo development overlooking Biscayne Bay, is the brainchild of Marcel Wanders, the 45-year-old Dutch designer. The place promises to be high on drama, with a swooping, laser-cut steel staircase; secret "kissing gardens"; and bathrooms with showerheads embedded in chandeliers. With a nod to Miami, the Mondrian will have lush gardens, pools, and spectacular views. With a nod to Wanders's heritage, it will feature blue and white Delft tiles in the condos' kitchens. But this being South Beach, not South Holland, and this being Wanders, not Vermeer, those tiles will be rendered with a mischievous twist: Instead of scenes of windmills, storks, and tulips, they'll feature sharks, gators, and the ceramic equivalent of mud-flap girls.

"It will be like the castle of Sleeping Beauty," says Wanders, sitting in the library of New York's Hudson Hotel and looking like a slightly debauched prince himself in a pin-striped Pal Zileri suit, open collar, unbuttoned French cuffs, hot pink Bathing Ape sneakers, and a string of gumball-size pearls. "Like the moment when the story ends, and people wake up after 100 years and see with new eyes."

With longish, swept-back graying hair, bespoke tailoring, flaky footwear, and signature necklaces (he sometimes opts for a chunky turquoise number), Wanders is a veritable walking advertisement for Wanders Inc. He is arguably among the best marketers of his generation; design, in his galaxy, extends beyond making products to the total experience of his brand, something he does his best to control to the last detail. Today, he is at the center of a multiarmed empire that includes deals with Puma, upscale-furniture company B&B Italia, and a new partnership with Yoo, the new $10 billion international real-estate-development firm built by John Hitchcox and Philippe Starck, for which Wanders will design residential properties -- in exchange for a percentage of sales. "For years, Philippe has been telling me that Marcel is the next Philippe Starck," says Hitchcox from London. "He's got that level of talent."

Mari Balestrazzi, vice president of design for Morgans Hotel Group, the Mondrian's developer, says Wanders was a "slam dunk" choice to mastermind the new Miami property. "Marcel combines world-class design with a sense of theatricality and sense of humor," she says. "And he has the vision to create a whole world."

The Mondrian is Wanders's first hotel-condo commission in the United States, and it's a significant gamble for the developer as well, given the broader economic doldrums stifling the industry. With properties such as the Delano and the Shore Club in Miami, the Royalton in New York, and the Sanderson in London, Morgans essentially launched the boutique-hotel phenomenon in 1984, when Ian Schrager tapped designers Andrée Putman and Starck to make its properties monuments to a certain studied cool. But Schrager has now gone on to other projects, most recently New York's Gramercy Park Hotel with Julian Schnabel, and Starck has signed a 15-year exclusive hotel deal with L.A. mogul-in-the-making Sam Nazarian. Their departures have forced Morgans to replace one of the great hotel developer/designer teams in history. Wanders's Mondrian will be the company's first new hotel in the post-Starck era.

"It was important for us that a designer could live up to the collective legacy of this company," says Morgans' chief marketing officer, Scott Williams. "To put this hotel out there is the most important statement we can make, and Marcel will demonstrate the richest sense of daring, free thinking, and style that we currently have." Morgans is so convinced it has found its next muse that Wanders has already been signed to create another Mondrian in Las Vegas, with a third in the wings.

From Issue 129 | October 2008