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Miami Beach Penthouse by Mojo Stumer Associates

Miami

Architects & Firms

Contemporary Miami Beach interiors are instantly recognizable by their sleek white finishes and bold accents of color. Yet “they didn’t want typical,” architect Joe Yacobellis, a senior associate at Mojo Stumer Associates, says of a husband and wife who purchased a spec condominium unit in the city. The New York–based design firm gutted this 4,700-square-foot vacation residence, reconfiguring the plan of the penthouse and combining concrete, blackened steel, and oak with white marble and lacquered surfaces. “An industrial-inspired space was always part of their vision, and we also wanted them to recognize where they were,” Yacobellis says of the material selections. “The overall goal was to marry New York and Miami.”

The primary bath is emblematic of the project’s transformative ambitions. This space hugs the terrace-wrapped north elevation of the mid-rise building, where the kitchen originally stood. To accommodate necessary plumbing, Mojo Stumer installed a platform above the concrete superstructure and connected this new raised space to the primary bedroom via two steps clad with sintered stone. Tucked behind the bedroom’s oak accent wall, a custom blackened-stainless-steel and wire-glass pocket door slides out to distinguish the sleeping from the bathing areas.

A double vanity maintains the blackened steel and oak that are woven throughout the interior. Deep reveals, surrounding wood cabinet fronts, lend an illusion of floating. “We wanted to express the elements separately, so one could appreciate the relationship between solid and void,” Yacobellis explains. The custom vanity includes built-in outlets and a tilt-out mirror; storage is adjacent.

A custom double vanity faces the bathroom entry. Photo © Lifestyle Production Group, click to enlarge.

The bath embodies spectacle as well as function. A wet-room area, which Mojo Stumer placed at the north-facing window wall, includes a stainless-steel soaking tub juxtaposed with a floor-to-ceiling plane of amethyst (a violet variety of quartz). The project team considered myriad natural and handmade materials, and ultimately decided on the purple slab “because it complements the angular tub without outshining it,” says Yacobellis. The flooring here is continuous with the wider bathroom’s nonslip sintered-stone surface, while the vertical expanse of amethyst faces a textured dark gray shower wall, fabricated from sintered stone as well.

An amethyst wall and steel soaking tub anchor the wet room (above) located at the building perimeter. Photo © Mike D. Stumer

The wet room also includes an inconspicuous privacy measure. Although there are no adjacent skyscrapers whose occupants might catch a glimpse of the clients bathing, Mojo Stumer specified a screening device for occasions when the terrace is occupied: electrochromic glass. Installed on the interior side of the glass building envelope, the glazing transitions from transparent to frosted with the flick of a switch. Delighted by the apartment’s various solutions, the homeowners have since sold their primary residence and moved into the Miami Beach penthouse full-time.

Click plan to enlarge