Navigate the undulating twists and turns of Miami’s famed Millionaire’s Row in late afternoon — perhaps in a convertible, perhaps tuned to “Sinatra” on Sirius — and suddenly, the looming wall of glass that is the timeless motif of Morris Lapidus’ Crystal House creates a brief, blinding glare. Boomers may flash on a sense memory — grandma’s old-world cooking, say, or perhaps a vision of one’s younger self… riding a gritty New York city subway in the dead of winter and looking up at an Eastern Airlines poster of a beach and a palm tree, promising what Miami has always promised: The Good Life.
A vision of a jet-set past, the dazzling interplay of light, and maybe even a sense of having arrived — all of these elements drew Keni Valenti to Crystal House when he first flew to Miami Beach to purchase a home.
“I dreaded being the quintessential New Yorker moving to Miami,” deadpans Keni. “But after 9/11 I just wanted to be on the ocean. And when I discovered Morris Lapidus, a realtor gave me a list of all the Lapidus buildings and I went to go look at them one by one. I loved how the Crystal House looked like the United Nations.”
Millionaire’s Row. Yes, they still call it that. For a while there, it was all musty card rooms and stained acoustic tiles, but in the past few years this stretch of Collins Avenue has surged in prestige. The Fontainebleau Hotel, just down the block — and considered by many to be Lapidus’ masterpiece — is now one of the hottest destination resorts in the world. And newer condo projects such as the Bath Club and Mei dazzle well-heeled sun seekers with their superlative oceanfront amenities.
In his earliest days, Valenti toiled in Manhattan in the skimpiest of outfits under the glint of a mirror ball at Studio 54. Then, in the ’80s, after opening his own boutique in the East Village, he found himself suddenly anointed a rising fashion star, backed by the huge Japanese real estate money that was flooding New York at the time. Flush with cash, Time magazine declared Keni “as saleable as the next Halston.” But back then, creative people were perhaps less careerist. After a backstage spat in Tokyo with his patrons, Keni insouciantly took off, traveling the world in style, checking out all the glamorous destinations he had always wanted to see. “Spain, Greece…I went everywhere.”
In 1995, Keni, sensing an incipient trend, started a business renting obscure couture clothes he had unearthed in boutiques and estate sales to fashion stylists and movie set designers. His nostalgia-infused finds were soon sought after by such luminaries as Tom Ford and Pat Field, costume designer for Sex and the City.
The business, however, was really just an extension of his love of shopping, of travel, of excitement. “Being in New York, if you’re on the scene, you just meet everyone.” Miami Beach, with its historic connection to New York, had never really seemed exotic enough to be on Keni’s radar, but then a chance Thanksgiving invitation from stylist Anna Chu made him realize the glamour he had always been seeking was not in Spain or Greece, but just two and half hours away.
Bordered by the ocean and Indian Creek, the Crystal House is an anomaly. Built seven years after the Fontainebleau, Lapidus daringly chose floor to ceiling glass windows instead of the de rigueur concrete balconies popular at the time. Was this a response to the criticism Lapidus suffered throughout his career for not being “modern” enough? Perhaps. Or maybe he just wanted to maximize the dramatic western views.
“I had an option to buy something on the ocean side” says Valenti, of his two bedroom apartment, “but I’m really not a morning person and I love the romance of the sunset and the views of downtown. I found it much more romantic, sexy and glamorous.”
A Vladimir Kagan couch covered in decadent silver leather evokes what seems to be at the core of Valenti’s sensibilities: the silver sixties of Warhol’s New York, as seen in the Super 8 black and white films of the Factory. It’s a darker spirit but frankly, keeping that dark spirit alive is difficult in the cheery sunshine of Keni’s apartment.
The evidence of an inveterate, peripatetic collector is also on display: sterling cigarette cases (on every surface, filled); Goyard luggage strewn about (a totemic Parisian reference, one of his favorite cities); plus a nod to Hollywood in a Regency ’70s style in a chair reportedly once owned by Billy Haines.
“Yard sales, garage sales, vintage stores, consignment shops — I always have to check it all out. You buy glass, and then you buy silver and it’s amazing how the antique markets on Lincoln road always have such great stuff.”
To accommodate his growing Miami collection, Valenti opened a “by appointment only” shop in a commercial space in the Seacoast Condominium next door, also Lapidus-designed. “But Pat Field comes to the apartment. I've known her since 1977.”
Valenti’s lifelong instinct for acquiring the perfect accoutrement extends to the Crystal House itself, where he obtained one of the exceedingly rare, deeded poolside cabanas. “There are 155 apartments in the Crystal House and 20 cabanas, most of which are passed down from generation to generation.” When I ask how he scored his, Keni, usually so jovial, so forthcoming, suddenly hedges: “Nobody gives up their cabanas,” he stammers, “I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.”
It’s all wonderful to come home to after a morning out scouring South Florida for finds. “You call down and the pool woman puts out towels and chairs on the beach,” says Valenti. “Plus there’s valet parking, a 24 hour concierge — it’s paradise.” And “in season,” when the building hums with long time residents and holiday parties, he can always pick up building lore, in the smart International Style lobby or perhaps by the pool.
“In 1964 there was a restaurant here — Bernard’s. It was all done up in a tented Moroccan style. You would be greeted by a gentleman in a top hat and tux and you’d see people like Jacob Javits. Plus, there was a theater nearby and the cream of the Hollywood “Rat Pack” would stay at the Crystal House: Sammy Davis Jr, Shirley MacLaine, Shelly Winters — anyone playing Miami Beach from 1962-1969 stayed at the Crystal House.”
And whatever happened to Bernard’s?
“Bernard’s?” Valenti laughs, with a resigned shrug. “Well, of course now it’s a gym.”
See more photos of Valenti's apartment in our photo gallery.
