San Juan hotel in South Beach gets facelift from Stantec

The San Juan Hotel and its new renovations
The San Juan Hotel and its new renovations

Architecture firm Stantec has put the finishing touches on its redesign of the historic San Juan hotel in South Beach, re-envisioning the property’s original postwar style.

The 76-room hotel was first designed in 1948 by noted Miami Beach architect Henry Hohauser, whose preference for Art Deco style influenced a number of pre-war buildings like the Essex House Hotel and the Collins Park Hotel, which is now being redeveloped by New York’s Chetrit Group.

Located at 1680 Collins Avenue, it’s been owned for the last 23 years by the Gilani family’s hospitality business, Gilani Enterprises.

As first reported by Curbed Miami, the family recently hired Stantec to touch up the hotel’s aging interiors and public spaces.

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The architecture company took the hotel’s original post-war design, complete with nautical touches that pay homage to its namesake city in Puerto Rico, and ran with it, according to a release.

That included placing little touches like warm wood, vintage brass and rope, all of which are meant to make the guest rooms feel like cabins in a sailboat.

At the lobby’s focal point is a wet bar with 100 brass lights hanging from the ceiling by slivers of wire. Outside, the pool and patio spaces were given new palm trees, a new zen garden and daybeds.