Faena Hotel Miami Beach – where a gold mammoth guards the ocean

Faena Hotel Miami Beach occupies the restored shell of the 1947 Saxony Hotel, a stretch of Mid-Beach oceanfront where Argentine hotelier Alan Faena and his partner Len Blavatnik staged the opening chapter of the Faena District in December 2015. The Saxony had been one of Miami Beach's first luxury hotels, the stage for Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin; Faena kept its bones and rebuilt everything else as spectacle, working with film director Baz Luhrmann and costume designer Catherine Martin on interiors that trade mid-century restraint for red velvet, gold leaf and a 24-karat gold mammoth skeleton by Damien Hirst standing guard over the garden. The MICHELIN Guide awards the hotel Two MICHELIN Keys, a distinction that reflects a stay built less around a room than around a continuous performance – theatre, art, fire-cooked asado and a spa modelled on South American ritual, spread across 179 rooms and suites and two MICHELIN Guide restaurants.

01The house

George Sax built the Saxony here in 1947, hiring architect Roy F. France for a seaside hotel that would come to define Collins Avenue glamour. It became one of Miami Beach's grandest hotels, a byword for modern glamour where Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin entertained the crowds.

Faena reopened the property in December 2015 with Len Blavatnik, the first phase of a wider Faena District built around Rem Koolhaas and OMA's Faena Forum, led on site by OMA partner Shohei Shigematsu, and Faena Bazaar, set inside the restored Atlantic Beach Hotel with its mix of fashion, jewellery, art and food. Miami landscape architect Raymond Jungles was brought in to tie the district's grounds together.

Inside, Faena worked with Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin, the married design team behind The Great Gatsby and Moulin Rouge, on an interior that runs on red velvet, gold leaf and operatic scale. Guests arrive through The Cathedral, a red-and-gold lobby hall whose murals were painted by Juan Gatti, the Argentine artist nicknamed the Michelangelo of Faena. Beyond it, in a glass vitrine facing the Atlantic, stands the hotel's best-known resident: Damien Hirst's Gone But Not Forgotten, a woolly mammoth skeleton gilded in 24-karat gold. A second Hirst piece, the gold unicorn Golden Myth, anchors the dining room at Pao.

02Rooms and suites

The hotel counts 179 rooms and suites, run across categories that each carry a different slice of the view. Bay View Rooms (489–615 sq ft) look toward the Intracoastal Waterway, Biscayne Bay and downtown; the late-Deco Partial Ocean View Room and the 727-square-foot Premier Oceanfront Room face the other way, straight at the Atlantic. The Bay View Queen Junior Suite (874 sq ft) adds a walk-in shower, and every category uses custom furniture, bold colour and details such as seashell lamps and velvet upholstery.

Insider tip

Reserve El Secreto's six seats ahead; the Sunday Asado at Los Fuegos runs midday to four.

At the top, spanning the building's upper floors, the Faena Penthouse Suite runs to 14,507 sq ft with five king bedrooms and floor-to-ceiling oceanfront glass. Walk in and the first things to register are the cool of the Italian terrazzo floor and a grand piano set against the open ocean.

03Where to eat

Dining at Faena centres on two MICHELIN Guide restaurants. Los Fuegos by Francis Mallmann brings the Argentine grillmaster's live-fire cooking to a contemporary asado setting built around an open-fire kitchen, climaxing every Sunday in a gaucho-style asado served from midday. Pao by Paul Qui, the James Beard Award-winning chef's modern Asian dining room, looks straight onto the ocean and is watched over by Golden Myth, Hirst's gilded unicorn.

Hidden within Pao, El Secreto Omakase seats just six guests at a time for a tasting menu that folds Tokyo-style sushi into Kyoto-style kaiseki, best booked well ahead of arrival. By day, the poolside Veranda serves breakfast and lunch with an ocean view, while Tree of Life and Campo Casa Faena round out a dining programme that runs from fire-grilled beef to Mexican-inflected cocktails.

04The bar

After dark, nightlife centres on The Living Room, with nightly live music, Vinyl Tuesdays and a Monday evening Martini Affair, and the Saxony Bar, which turns over to late-night performances and craft cocktails Thursday to Saturday.

Cabaret happens inside the Faena Theater, a room awash in red velvet and gold leaf beneath a waterfall crystal chandelier that recalls the opulence of Jazz Age Europe. Its current production, Obsession, runs Thursday to Saturday, and the hotel's Jazz Series returns from October 2026 to June 2027.

05Spa and wellbeing

The entire third floor belongs to Tierra Santa Healing House, a 22,000-square-foot spa built around one of the largest hammams on the East Coast and a handcrafted wooden sauna.

Its signature room is lit by Float, a chandelier hand-assembled from 400 multicoloured fishing floats, and its most distinctive single treatment is the 110-minute Tree of Life Vibrations, performed on a heated bed with warm singing bowls set along the spine and neck.

Facials and dermatology treatments use the French line Biologique Recherche, hair and skin are also looked after at the in-house Rossano Ferretti Salon, and the spa's daily rhythm starts early, with yoga and meditation at Tierra Santa Studio from eight each morning.

06The neighbourhood

Faena Hotel anchors the Faena District, an eight-block run of Mid-Beach between the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Creek, from 32nd to 36th streets, which Alan Faena calls "urban alchemy" – transforming a neighbourhood by layering new creative energy onto what already exists rather than tearing it down.

Next door, Faena Forum, designed by Rem Koolhaas and OMA under partner Shohei Shigematsu, hosts the district's exhibitions and performances, while Faena Bazaar occupies the restored Atlantic Beach Hotel, also an OMA project, mixing fashion, jewellery, art and food.

The hotel's standing shows in the numbers: Forbes Travel Guide awarded it a five-star rating in its first year of operation, and in 2026 Condé Nast Traveler named it the best hotel in Miami for the fourth year running and placed it among the world's top 25.

07Making the most of a stay

Book the six seats at El Secreto Omakase well before arrival, and set aside a Sunday for the asado at Los Fuegos, which runs from midday to four. The hotel's beachfront stretches across 100,000 square feet of private sand, with butlers on hand on every guest floor, and the property welcomes pets and keeps a Tesla charging point for guests who drive down Collins Avenue.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.