When Dan Tyler and Todd Marsh decided to relocate from Manhattan to Miami Beach, they took many of their midcentury furnishings with them. To help them integrate those pieces into their new surroundings, they also brought along their designers, Michael J. Rosenberg and Leonard J. Kowalski, who had fashioned two of the couple’s past residences. “We went through the apartment and gave it a completely new image,” Rosenberg says. “Miami is a city of lights and glamour, and we wanted to create a home that would reflect that energy.”
To that end, the designers replaced the existing hardwood floors throughout the unit with gleaming white terrazzo glass tiles and created a color palette inspired by the ocean views. “The strength of the blacks, blues, whites and silvers is really quite striking,” Rosenberg says. In the drawing room, a pair of biscuit-tufted lounge chairs covered in a blue velvet tiger print commingles with a contemporary sofa and a pair of club chairs around a two-tier American 1950s-era cocktail table. “Previously, we had covered the tufted lounge chairs in a neutral cream woven fabric,” Rosenberg says. “But each of our spaces reflects where our clients are at that moment. It’s about taking their pieces, rethinking them and reintroducing them in a fresh new way.”
In the same room, a black Saarinen table sits next to a display of custom white-lacquered bookcases that Rosenberg designed. “Creating storage was a challenge, so every space was conceived to serve multiple functions,” he says, noting that he also redesigned the moldings and doors throughout the unit. Although Rosenberg oversaw the project from New York, he made periodic visits and spoke nearly every day with builder Kennit Hege, who implemented the construction modifications. “He was fantastic,” Rosenberg says. “The changes gave the space personality.”
As do wallcoverings, which the designers placed throughout the condo to add texture, movement and excitement. In the drawing room, for example, the textural silver gilded wallcovering shimmers and reflects the changing light throughout the day. “Art Deco is very glamorous, and I think it still works today,” Dan says, pointing to the many Deco elements that Rosenberg and Kowalski incorporated throughout the home, including gilded finishes and tiered moldings. “Our clients like midcentury design, but we wanted to freshen it up,” Rosenberg says. “We didn’t want to get stuck in one moment.”
For the master bedroom, the design duo selected a neutral embroidered grass-cloth wallcovering with a diamond pattern that was continued onto the bedding. According to Rosenberg, the play-on-play pattern creates an airy dimension. “The master bedroom has a much calmer Zen aesthetic,” he explains.
In the media room, Rosenberg and Kowalski accommodated the owners’ request for a dark, cozy room by covering the wall with a studded black grass cloth. “During the day, there’s so much sunlight pouring into the apartment,” Rosenberg says, “sometimes you just need to void it out.” The dark walls provide an ideal backdrop for the owners’ collection of vibrant LeRoy Neiman paintings, which have been hung gallery-style above a sofa covered in colorful vertical stripes. Accent pillows and a pair of custom leather ottomans also add color. “It’s my favorite room in the whole apartment,” Dan says. “It has a nice, comfortable, warm and relaxing feeling.”
The pillows, Dan says, have been covered with a durable indoor-outdoor fabric that was selected to withstand wear and tear from their pets—a Tonkinese cat, a standard poodle and an African Grey parrot. “Nothing has been thrown in for happenstance,” he explains. “There isn’t anything in this apartment that doesn’t reflect us in some way.”
