Start with a five-story derelict building with 20,000 square feet of interior space and 60,000 square feet of exterior garden space. Add more than 60 installations by renowned interior designers, decorators, and architects. The result? Casa Decor Miami, the first of its kind, brought to the United States at the Miami Woman's Club by president/founder Javier Sanjuanbenito of ADRA Construction and executive vice president/co-founder Esther Jackson, president and C.E.O. of MDS Group and editor-in-chief/publisher of Florida International Magazine.The concept was born in as Casa Foa 1987 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, by Mercedes Malbran de Campos. It spread to Brazil and Peru as Casa Cor before launching in Spain in 1992 under the main moniker of Casa Decor. In total, 34 shows are produced throughout Spain and 11 in Portugal, hosting more than 1.5 million visitors combined. Sanjuanbenito secured the franchise to bring it to the U.S. market and collaborated with Jackson to set the design in motion.
"Miami was a natural choice because of its [strong ties] to the cultures of Central and South America, and people were familiar with the Casa Decor concept," Jackson said. It took six months to find to find the perfect location—the idea is to overtake vacant commercial buildings from hospitals to post offices to churches. The Miami Woman's Club, built in 1925 in a Mediterranean style, was chosen and within six weeks, it was spruced up with all new electrical and plumbing systems. Now all they had to do was let the creative energy of more than 40 designers, decorators, and architects flow throughout the space into unique designs—within 45 days, of course.
At press time, more than 15,000 visitors had attended the six-week event. On December 17, the design showcase locked its doors to the public, but not before hosting an estate sale to give everyone an opportunity to take a piece of Casa Decor Miami back to their own homes.
Thanks to the renovations made to the Woman's Club, it will remain open as an event space. Sanjuanbenito and Jackson will turn this into an annual event as Casa Decor USA, with stops planned for Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C.
—Vanessa Goyanes
Photos: Casa Décor '06 Miami
Madrid's Teresa Sapey of Teresa Sapey Architects collaborated with Tile of Spain on this topsy-turvy media room full of red and white whimsy.
Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz of New York's BNO Design took over a space on the third floor and titled it Dream. With all-white furniture and metal and Lucite accents, the room's sole color came from those popular plastic garden flamingos (a Florida dream, perhaps?) perched on glass vases filled with sand.
Uli Petzold, general manager of European Architectural Lighting Inc., created a cocoon lounge on the first floor with modern, understated furniture and an unlikely design accent: a row of Barbie dolls showcased above the sofa. Arranged in various poses, all were dressed in two-piece pink outfits to match the sofa.
Santiago Bernal of Concepto Uno in Miami Beach and Silvia Naziazeni of Coral Gables's Anima Domus designed a master suite on the second floor with a classic black and white color palette with an edgy twist of featuring the bathroom directly in front of the bed.
Also on the second floor was Christopher Raessler's (South Beach Design Group) creation, titled Vita Versus. The ornate chandelier was the focal point, but the use of metallic cubes as seating for the dining table garnered just as much attention.
Osirys Mendez of Mendez International & Associates in Pembroke Pines is known for her "elegant, eclectic, and romantic" style. Her design, A Taste of Glam, was an ode to Fendi and littered with unique pieces featuring the famed company's logo on a chandelier, table lamp, and floor rug.
Interiors from Spain took over a large section on the fourth floor to build a mock hotel and spa. Miguel Garcia Caridad of Garcia Caridad y Asociados along with Javier Garcia Garcia and Hector Ruiz-Velazquez of GG&RV Arquitectos (both companies from Madrid) designed one area of the hotel with two splash pools complete with lounge chairs, umbrella, towels, and water.
No inch of Casa Decor was left bare, including the stairwells, painted by renowned Pembroke Pines muralist David "Lebo" Le Batard.
