Moore, please

The Moore (Design District)

PRIVATE CLUBS • First Person

Cutting a neoclassical silhouette in tan brick, the Design District’s century-old Moore building has long felt like the neighborhood’s unofficial flagship. Over the past couple of decades, as the neighborhood transformed into a bastion of luxury retail, fine dining, and public art, the Moore mostly served as an event space, best for sipping free drinks and nibbling hors d'oeuvres beneath Zaha Hadid’s Elastika sculpture, conversations bouncing off the space’s dramatic four-story interior courtyard.

Over the last year, the Moore building transformed, too — first with last April’s debut of the ground floor restaurant Elastika, then in the fall, with the opening of The Moore, a private club with a 13-room ultra-boutique hotel crowning the fourth floor.

While membership costs start around $400 per month (with a $5000 initiation fee), a stay at the hotel also grants access to the club’s programming and amenities, which span a fun-house-like second floor with hidden cocktail lounges, a karaoke room, game rooms, private dining, meeting rooms, and library, not to mention museum-quality art. There’s also a third floor workspace.

It’s all impressive, but my suite — easily in my top five most beautiful hotel rooms in Miami — was what won me over. Designed by LA-based Studio Collective in collaboration with ICRAVE, each suite is unique, adhering to the original building’s historic footprint, featuring art and custom furnishings by makers like Mous and Sossego. They’re richly textured spaces, mostly in neutral tones, with luxurious finishes that evoke a feeling of plush tranquility.

The suites are designed to feel like private residences. A wood-paneled forward sitting room envelopes you in louche 1970s vibes thanks to a low-slung cream bouclé sectional sofa and wood and cane-backed chairs. A kitchenette holds a dining table and accessories like a Chemex coffeemaker. Bedrooms feature architectural lighting and floating platform beds, anchored by a plush blue-splattered area rug. The pièce de resistance, however, is the enormous spa-like, sand-toned marble bathroom with a soaking tub and rainfall shower, plus a separate water closet with Toto toilet.

During my stay, I dropped into Ahana Yoga’s epic Sunday Service class, brunched at Elastika, browsed Prada and Chanel, enjoyed happy hour at Michael’s Genuine, and then returned to my plush suite, welcomed back by the staff. As the only hotel in the Design District, it felt like an especially privileged perch over this unabashedly luxe neighborhood. –Shayne Benowitz

→ The Moore (Design District) • 4040 NE 2nd Ave • weekends from $591/night • Reserve.