Design Miami: Starck’s IconBrickell opening

December 10, 2008. We didn’t get any good party pictures at the opening of Philippe Starck’s extravagant new IconBrickell condo complex in downtown Miami last week (though we did spot Marcel Wanders and his posse making an entrance, fresh off their own mega hotel/condo opening two days before). We can, however, describe the scene: A line of fancy cars waiting to pass through the 22-foot-tall Easter Island–style columns surrounding the drive, a mob scene at the door negotiated by intense security checks and invisible-ink hand stamps, a hand-rolled cigar bar on the two-acre pool terrace, and some lady wearing the most amazing skin-tight silver sequin pants we’d ever seen. Inside the building—actually three towers, constructed by Arquitectonica—were common areas and model apartments designed by Starck in conjunction with his Yoo residential arm, complete with throne chairs, chandeliers, and other neo-baroque flourishes. The buildings not only hold 1,800 residences, but a Viceroy Hotel by Kelly Wearstler, for those of us not quite prepared to invest in a Miami pied-a-terre, soft market or no. Starck fans, though, should definitely pay the place a visit the next time they’re in town. iconbrickell.com