MUTINY HOTEL
The Mutiny Hotel was developed in the late seventies from a converted apartment building, to a thriving hotel booked 93% of the time, on Sailboat Bay in Coconut Grove. The owner, Burton Goldberg, developed the hotel for his guests traveling from South America to visit his well known Mutiny Club…a two level private nighttime venue, perched on the front of the twelve story building. Ten rooms were developed by his girl friend Denise Domb, until I was brought from San Francisco in 1978 to complete the rest of the 110 rooms with the hotel staff of five men who barely spoke English. Each room in the hotel was different than the next with Roman tubs in most. Recently in the Fall of 2017 a most compelling book, Scarface Hotel, written by Roben Farzad, depicts the goings-on in the hotel and club known as the hang out of high rollers and drug cartel. Partying in the room’s hot tubs, ordering flaming drinks and an adoring audience for the pole dancers in the club, was only part of the norm. As a design project it was challenging to manage a maintenance crew who built the rooms in-house, with little or no experience and a housekeeping staff educated in how to maintain everything from polished plaster walls, patin leather upholstery, tatami mats and velvet curtains! There has never been another hotel of its size and popularity in the US and probably will never be. It was the passion of a single man, his dedication for creativity, finding the personnel to fulfill his dream of a Club and Hotel, and of serving his clients with lavish entertainment. Exotic hotel rooms adorned with huge fruit baskets, elegantly dressed girls in hats with live orchids for the guests, record sales of Dom Pérignon as well as Brazialian Festival dancers, made The Mutiny Hotel and Club an international sensation.
Photos by Dan Forer