Morris Lapidus designed the Eden Roc for a site immediately to the north of his Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel built in 1954. The hotel was designed for Harry Mufson, who was a then-estranged former partner of Fontainebleau owner, Ben Novack, who together had previously created another Miami Beach landmark hotel located about a half-mile to the south, the Sans Souci. The Eden Roc site had previously been the Warner Estate, owned by Albert Warner of the Warner Brothers. Mufson told Lapidus "I don't want any of the French stuff you used at the Fontainebleau. That's for kids." Novack was infuriated at both Lapidus and Mufson for building the Eden Roc, then considered one of the most elegant and luxurious hotels of its time, and retaliated in 1961 by building a blank 14-story North Tower as a "spite wall" on the Fontainebleau property to shade the Eden Roc's pool. All rooms faced south, and the side facing the Eden Roc consisted of an unpainted and unsightly "eye sore," in which the sole window, an oceanside penthouse on the north side, belonged to Novack, which he created for the purpose of "keeping an eye on" Harry and his guests at the Eden Roc. Mufson sued Novack in what would become one of the most acrimonious, personal legal architectural battles in Miami Beach history. At the Eden Roc, Lapidus avoided the sweeping curves of the Fontainebleau, choosing instead a more formal composition reminiscent of earlier Miami Beach hotels. The hotel is surmounted by a large finned enclosure bearing the hotel's signs. An addition on the south side of the Eden Roc property was built to cover the spite wall and new pools were built in unshaded locations. The hotel was named after the Eden Roc pavilion at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes, France. The hotel housed the Cafe Pompei, a supper club that offered entertainment with dinner. The Mona Lisa Room was an intimate formal dining room, and Harry's American Bar was the hotel's nightclub.
Recent history
The hotel was restored in 1997 by architects Spillis Candela and Partners, and expanded in 2006. Marriott International began operating the hotel in 2005 under its Renaissance Hotels & Resorts brand as the Eden Roc Renaissance Miami Beach, under a fifty-year contract. However, due to disagreements between Marriott and the owners, which resulted in numerous lawsuits, the hotel left Marriott on July 11, 2013. In 2016, a portion of the hotel, including 206 guest rooms and the hotel's bar and restaurants, was converted to the Nobu Hotel Miami Beach, a "hotel-within-a-hotel". The Eden Roc now has 415 remaining rooms.
Popular culture
The musical groupSteely Dan mentions "a tower room at Eden Roc" as a symbol of luxury in its song "Brooklyn," on the albumCan't Buy a Thrill. Eden Roc was also featured in back to back episodes of I Love Lucy, entitled "Deep Sea Fishing" and "Desert Island" in 1956.
