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The apartment building became an eight bedroom home, complete with two kitchens, ten bathrooms, three sitting rooms and more. In addition to Gianni Versace, the house was also used by his many close friends and family members. His brother Santo’s bedroom is now called the Venus room, his sister Donatella’s bedroom is the Signature suite. The remaining 23 apartments in the building were available for rent and to house many of Freeman’s friends that visited Miami Beach. If the courtyard is heavy on design elements, the bedrooms are far more ornate. In the Venus Suite, a bed the size of your average kitchen sits below a ceiling painted like a floral trellis, with a bronze headboard adorned with an intricate leaf-painted stencil pattern.
Staying at the Versace Mansion
Producer Ryan Murphy told the New York Post he couldn’t believe that he received permission to shoot the series there. “The entire opening of the show was completely shot in the Versace mansion, in the interior. Then we shot the exterior quite a bit, especially the pool area and first courtyard,” says Judy Becker, American Crime Story’s production designer. As part of an extensive three-year remodel, the 24 apartments became 10 spacious suites. It was renamed “The Amsterdam Palace” and turned into a 30-unit apartment building that attracted many local artists with its unique design. In 2001, some of the decor from when Versace lived in the mansion was auctioned in New York City for a reported $28 million, according to the venue's website.
Dinner
The Miami mansion was luxurious and filled with works of art such as Picassos, but it wasn't a museum-like space. Instead, he made it a comfortable place to live with his partner, Antonio D'Amico. Versace's bedroom was one of the rooms with a double-king bed (requiring custom sheets). It also had seven closets (a designer naturally requires closet space) and an extremely large shower. One of the home's secret passages made it easy to get from the bedroom to a communal area.
They include this mosaic of Versace's signature Medusa head.
The banisters running along the open walkways above are Victorian, while arched cutouts in the plaster are Moorish. The tiles and the little flourishes here and there are a mix of Italian, Moroccan, Spanish and probably a dozen other styles. Copeland works for Victor Hotels, a South Beach-based company specializing in boutique properties.
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It's also said that Versace maintained a pigeon coop beneath the rooftop observatory, and would use the messenger pigeons to send notes to friends. Details are scant on these rumors, but what's certain is that The Villa will continue to intrigue visitors, no doubt even more so when the TV series hits screens next year. It was built in 1930 by Alden Freeman, whose father worked for The Standard Oil Trust and left him a fortune which allowed him to retire at 27 and build his dream house, inspired by the historic Alcazar De Colon in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. An estimated $32 million in renovations over three years transformed the historic property into a manse fit for a style king. The room where Madonna would stay, the Mosaic Suite, is located upstairs, where the singer apparently enjoyed the bathroom's acoustics and the bird's-eye view of the pool.
The four-story villa was built in the first half of the 19th century by the eccentric English noble, Lord Currie, who couldn’t find a property that suited his needs. Versace bought the home in 1977 in a state of disrepair and embarked on an expansive, three-year restoration to rejuvenate the property. By 1980, the villa was returned to its neoclassical splendor, graced with an impressive collection of Greek and Roman statuary, one of Versace’s collecting passions, as well as oil paintings and other works of art.
And if you don’t feel like stripping down to your bikini in front of a group of lunch diners, opt for the time between meals. There are now ten rooms you can stay in at the Villa Casa Casuarina, I believe. I think Gianni created eight and possibly somewhere in the renovations, two were added.
Tour Inside Gianni Versace's Mansion in South Beach
Here we find, nestled among low-rise Art Deco hotels, Villa Casa Casuarina – better known as the Versace Mansion. The Versace mansion is the third most photographed house in the United States behind Elvis’ Graceland and the White House. What is believed, according to the FBI, is that Cunanan and Versace had met in San Francisco in 1990, but details surrounding exactly what their relationship remained a mystery. She oversees the site’s BAZAAR Bride channel, travel & dining content, and styles fashion and bridal editorials for BAZAAR.com.
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The Versace store Sardinia operated in South Beach was a pioneer, adding high fashion to a neighborhood otherwise in hard times. Sardinia recalls showing up in the mornings to find the entrance littered with needles and homeless Marielitos, the hard-up refugees arriving from Cuba during the Mariel boatlift, sleeping in the doorway. Before we walk inside, though, first understand the background of the grand home Versace once occupied. The house was built in 1930 by Alden Freeman, who retired at just 27 thanks to a vast inheritance of Standard Oil money from his father. They say the design took inspiration from the Alcázar De Colón, the Dominican Republic home of the son of Christopher Columbus.
That year, Donatella’s daughter Allegra turned 18 and, under the terms of her uncle’s will, inherited half of the company. The company returned to profit in 2011 and three years later sold a 20 percent stake to private equity firm Blackstone to fund an expansion. This September, the Versace family sold the company to design conglomerate Michael Kors, which was renamed CapriHoldings, for $2.12 billion.
The 24 units in the building were converted into 10 spacious suites; additionally, the finished home featured a library, a bar, 10 bathrooms, 3 living rooms, 2 kitchens, and a swimming pool with 24-karat gold mosaic tiles. Versace invested an additional $32 million in renovations in which he added the south wing, the pool and garden and turned the 24 apartments into 10 large suites in the original house and an additional 2 new suites in the south wing. He also removed the elevator shaft in the Courtyard, replaced the fountain and reconstructed the observatory, including a new copper dome. Versace had planned to buy the then-vacant lot next door to the north in order to put in a second garden, but when his death intervened it became part of the Victor Hotel.
Did I mention that Versace had this pool deconstructed and brought over from his home in Italy? I’d say this was a “bit extra” if it wasn’t for his 24-karat-gold-encrusted mosaic windows. To be able to see it all, you need to be staying at the Versace Mansion.
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