While hotel occupancies are up, it’s been a rough go of it for Florida’s lodging industry of late. But a few new hotels are due to open on Miami Beach, and they all have one thing in common: Luigi Vitalini.

The Italian-born architect moved to Miami as a teenager and studied at the University of Miami. He operates VC Architects in Coral Gables with partner Pablo Corazzini, and has designed the already-open Sense Hotel and Prime Hotel along with the soon-to-open Villa Italia, which will open in the fall. The hotels are low-scale, between 14 and 18 rooms each. Vitalini spoke with The Real Deal about his projects and the state of design in Miami.

What are the challenges of designing in
Miami Beach?

The context you’re working with is very
challenging. The most challenging thing is to combine everything in such
a small site, to try to have balconies and a view. In front of the
Sense Hotel, for example, are two pretty nondescript tall buildings from
the 1960s — so you can only catch a little glimpse of the water
between the buildings. So we angled all the rooms so that you could,
from pretty much any room, get this sliver of blue. That’s the most
challenging thing, to arrange the rooms in such an urban area and get
some views. [more]

Even with the real estate downturn, hotels on Miami Beach continue to
pop up, especially smaller, boutique accommodations. The trend is not
limited to South Beach, however, as hotels have been opening in Fort
Lauderdale and downtown Miami. One newcomer is the Prime Hotel, owned
by Myles Chefetz, who owns, with four other restaurants, the
high-priced Prime One Twelve restaurant on Ocean Drive. Two other small
hotels will open on the island soon, including Sense and Villa Italia,
each of which has less than 20 rooms. All three hotels, including
Prime, were designed by Luigi Vitalini, of Coral Gables-based Vitalini
Corazzini Architects. [Miami Herald]