Photography by Michael Moran
Lee Mindel’s condo at Eighty-Seven Park in Surfside, Florida features the Ammanoid Gama chair by Misha Kahn and Hyper Ellipsoid, a bioluminescent sculpture by Gisela Colon. Beside the Bowy sofa by Patricia Urquiola for Cassina is Rashid Johnson’s Untitled Bust.
Architect Lee Mindel.
When Lee Mindel looks out from his condo’s balcony in Surfside, Florida, which covers almost as much square footage as the distinctive apartment within, he doesn’t just see the Atlantic Ocean, but an affinity for an element that has become one of his calling cards as an architect and designer. “I’m not an astrology person,” says Mindel, “but I am a Cancer, which I’m told is a water sign. People probably have a more intimate relationship with water than anything else.”
This concept is strongly reflected in his living space at Eighty-Seven Park, where continuous balconies soak up views of freshly minted parkland and the sparkling water beyond. The Renzo Piano–designed building is so close to the beach that looking down from the 11th-floor unit he shares with his husband, architectural designer José Marty, almost feels like sand running through your toes. Inside he tapped into a Miami-style tropical flair with pieces like the living room’s undulating Ammonoid Gama chair by Misha Kahn, upholstered in red and hot pink, facing Hyper Ellipsoid, a bioluminescent sculpture by Gisela Colón that to Mindel looks “like something you might find under the sea.” He likewise chose the room’s commodious wicker Carlo Scarpa armchairs for their seaside feeling, combining them with the François Bauchet coffee table he admires for “its Morris Lapidus influence.” An iconic Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown Queen Anne chair suddenly seems all about its wavy lines. The neon “M-I-A” displayed by the entrance is part of a 1940s sign that originated in Finland.
At this Palm Beach residence, Mindel used the landscape as an architectural form to improve the privacy of the pool area.
The balmy climate allowed Mindel to furnish the commodious balcony with the type of Rodolfo Dordoni sofas and tables and Alvar Aalto Stool 60s normally found indoors. Chaise lounges from his design firm’s Continuous Line for Sutherland Furniture encourage relaxing in the sun, and the elongated rectangle of a blue Chilewich rug forms a trompe l’oeil swimming pool.
Mindel designed the interiors of this Root Trail Bungalow in Miami with artwork by Dee Clements and Thomas Trum.
Just a few blocks north, The Surf Club, originally founded in 1930 by tire tycoon Harvey Firestone, offered him another opportunity to make a personal statement. While pursuing his architecture degree at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, Mindel studied under Richard Meier, so in 2015, when Meier invited him to work with him on the club’s redesign and expansion, he jumped at the chance. Tapped to provide an architectural statement that would serve to introduce a development encompassing a Four Seasons hotel and condominium complex, Mindel designed a sales office and exhibition space in a light-filled pavilion built over a series of canvas baffles that seemed on the verge of setting sail, announcing a new, transformative presence in a historic spot. Its natural environment of sea, sand, and tropical greenery became integral to the design vocabulary of his Florida work.
The Frank console and Mart chair are by Antonio Citterio for B&B Italia; the brand’s Alanda coffee table sits in front of a 1950’s settee by Dan Johnson.
Head south to Foster + Partners Faena House in Miami Beach, and Mindel has kicked his seafaring references up an additional notch, inserting a mill-worked corridor in the shape of a mast to run the length of the public spaces, narrowing it geometrically as it approaches the ocean, only to open it out onto the rounded balcony’s far-reaching waterfront exposure. The furnishings inside are light and quietly voluptuous, punctuated by more colorful forms mimicking the imagery of South Beach and its cabanas, sun louvers, beach balls, and palette of sunlit sea and shore.
Costa Lounge chairs and Clifton Coffee table are by Serena & Lily; the landscape was designed by Fernando Wong.
It has this in common with the project Mindel calls “the smallest house in Miami,” a tiny Root Trail Bungalow he made over in 2020 from the type built in the 19th century to house workers constructing mansions for Jazz Age millionaires, where he employed a décor of natural wicker, seagrass, and wood mixed with colorful, graphic art by the likes of Thomas Trum. From the outside it could belong on a Caribbean island; Mindel leans toward St Barts in the ‘70s, when, he says, he could still find places to stay with a “beach—shacky feel.”
Palm Beach is essentially Miami’s opposite, its social register more black-tie, its aura more Florida Regency. Mindel captured this in a white stucco house there, connecting its front garden and backyard pool through a crisp black-and-white interior that faces outward through tall, mullioned windows on the street side and emphatically outlined window walls along the rest. Out back, a fringe of black-and-white–striped awning accents the rearview windows. In a rare note of color, a series of lithographs by Josef Albers (a Mindel favorite) line the walls of a small office.
On a late November evening, Mindel was back home in Surfside, preparing for the invigorating rush of Art Week, as well as for a side trip to Wellington, where he’s designing a new house and stables on a horse farm. As he took in his ocean view, it didn’t seem a leap to assume that he was once again hatching a plan for water to find its way into the scene.
