This Retro-Cool South Beach Hotel Is A Perfect Pit Stop For The Miami F1 Grand Prix
The Gates Hotel South Beach blends a great location with loads of old-school charisma.
A breezy-chic and glamorous retreat of South Beach in all its Art Deco glory and canal-meets-the-Atlantic ocean location, The Gates Hotel South Beach officially opened in 2015. But its history as a inn dates back to 1954 when it was originally opened as Motel Ankara, designed in the futuristic Googie architecture style—the heyday of Miami’s curvilinear, streamlined-chic ethos of the era. That’s just one reason why it’s a perfect pit stop for the upcoming Miami F1 Grand Prix race, along with the SLS Hotel, where Maxim’s Miami Race Weekend party revs up at Hyde Beach on May 3.
Airy, geometric, and boasting one of the coolest lobby-lounges in the city, The Gates is far from the priciest hotel in South Beach, but it is arguably amongst the most retro-stylish.
The structure forms an organic half circle, with rooms and suites designed in an “L” shape, embracing its surroundings. Esteemed architectural design firm Dutch East Design and Focus Lighting collaborated to transform The Gates, while maintaining the structure’s original integrity and Jetsons-esque design elements.
The Ankara’s sprawling pool, with its tiki-meets-surf style references, was a thing of wonder, designed by architect R.P. Witt, and still is. In 2017, the pastel-hued 235-room hotel completed its makeover along the Indian Creek Canal on Collins Avenue—that scenic stretch ending at Ocean Drive and entering the bacchanalian “scene.”
Collins has always been more about taking it easy, rolling like the waves. Leave The Gates on one of the hotel’s bicycle cruisers and you can end up having café Cubano and black beans with yellow rice and Cuban toast in a Little Havana diner, or heading over to the Art District hub Wynwood and checking out the amazing hand-painted billboards and estimable galleries that take center stage come Art Basel. Ditto, go swanky nightclubbing or to a colorful dive bar.
Of course, you don’t have to leave the property. K’Alma Spa offers massages and wellness treatments in-room or on the hotel’s third-floor Plunge Deck. The expansive first-floor deck overlooks the hotel’s pool and the Collins Waterway with custom double-sided cabanas. Steps from the hotel are cultural destinations such as Lincoln Road, the Wolfsonian, the Perez, and the Bass museums; the Miami Beach Convention Center and the area’s finest shopping and dining venues.
The Gates itself is noted for OLA, its Latin America-inspired restaurant, where chefs Christopher Camacho and Carlos Castro and their team offer everything from specialty mojitos to their famously fresh ceviches, with a picturesque poolside patio to enjoy them on. If you’re a tequila man or woman, its bar offers dozens of options, as well as mezcals.
Throughout its public spaces and suites The Gates has curated a vast collection that mirrors the natural colors and vibrancy of South Florida. That includes the work of renowned beach and seascape photographer Jorge De La Torriente, like Pink Umbrellas pictured here. Custom images curated by the hotel’s design team anchor the double-height wall in lobby, providing a mini pop-up gallery experience.
The Gates South Beach is part of The Gates Gallery of Hotels, an up-and-coming collection of artfully designed properties with locations in Key West, Barcelona, and San Francisco. The portfolio is managed by Highgate, a premier real estate investment and hospitality management company with headquarters in New York and Dallas. Its portfolio includes more than 100 properties in gateway cities worldwide. In 2016 The Gates was added to the Hilton portfolio as well.
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