The Four Seasons Hotel is located in the quiet residential area of Surfside. It’s a new take on old-school elegance, with a timeless, welcoming feel. Opened in 2017, the hotel builds upon the illustrious circa 1931 beach club that hosted America’s most distinguished throughout the mid 20th century, including Gary Cooper, Winston Churchill, Frank Sinatra, and Elizabeth Taylor, for fashion-forward parties, beach soirees, and alcohol-fueled overnights—epic enough to enshrine The Surf Club into Florida cultural history (and merit a standalone Assouline coffee-table book).
The Surf Club is now a modernist, glass-framed, three-story building, reviving the Mediterranean Revival architecture of the original. In 72 of the 77 guest rooms and suites in the new towers, glass balconies give way to soothing interiors by famed Paris-based creator Joseph Dirand, delivering design studies in midcentury-modern updated for the present day, underscored by juxtapositions of travertine–finished spaces, clean-lined (yet curvaceous) hybrid furnishings, and tastefully gilded accents. The five Ocean Bungalows on the lower level, which were once Russell T. Pancoast’s beach cabanas, have a similar style. The restored historic building is full of vintage glamour, from the check-in desk made out of black marble (where a Champagne cart is waiting for you upon arrival) to the Lido Restaurant, which was once the Club’s ballroom but has been thoughtfully converted into a gorgeous Italian hotspot. —Paul Rubio
