apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

My dream home. I think it's wonderful.

How wonderful! I would love to visit such an amazing space.

Um, you realize you are torturing us with this, right?

"Yes, my 16 THOUSAND square feet bayfront home didn't offer enough room for me and my spectacular art collection, so I moved to a second (or third or fourth) home..."

Jeez. I like a good peek inside the neighbor's as much as the next, but this borders on cruelty to an audience of space-challenge. Maybe it's just space/bay/Miami envy...

I have always wondered, though, how "liveable" this kind of art is, but I guess we'll never know, since this is basically a gallery.

And I wonder if her neighbors know this is (sort of) basically a business now? Hmmm, she probably can write the whole thing off at tax time, too.

Like I said, maybe it's just the envy talking... good for her for such a passion for art! (and for letting us peek inside).

(but, YIKES, that Mardi Gras Devil Head Gas mask thing looming over the table is the stuff of Lunesta-proof nightmares.)

The planner in me is thinking "Can she create a gallery when it's probably zoned residential?"

You all can feel free to stop by (by appointment of course) of my 700 sf (if that) 1 br apartment. Maybe I'll curate an exhibit of my old U2 and georgia o'keefe posters.

I couldn't get past the scary staring eyeball mask. It's really aweful.

aweful? or do you mean awful?

I'm thinking your subconscious might like the staring eyeball thing (can't help it - it's the old psych student in me!) I do agree that a lot of folks might not be comfortable with the mask thing and find it spooky. Me, I'm weird, I find too many separate rooms spooky and would love to live in a huge open space with the bonus of art all over the place - but I can't imagine cleaning it. Of course, I guess it's one of those things where if I am even thinking about how I'd clean it, I'm already living in a world entirely out of the income-level for this dream home.

Patrick - agreed - this is like some kind of square footage torture. (PS You were great on SSBS - I didn't get a chance to post sooner but wanted to let you know - you are a tv natural - and I love your place. Have you already posted about the bedding? I was really drawn to the colors and would like to know more about it.)

There is no charge to enter the museum. I am also a planner by trade and wonder about the zoning issues, but I am sure they got around that issue.
As for the mask, those eyes are actually those of Christopher Reeve, enlarged obviously.
Sometimes, I think it is possible to enjoy someone else's stuff without envying it.

And some people with semi-ostentatious displays of wealth and success like to be envied, so you just never know.

For the record, I would not have had exactly the same reaction to this place had I first seen it in Architectural Digest or Elle Decor. But on AT, I expect to see other things.

This is a bit like a virtual tour of the Krispy Kreme plant on the Jenny Craig site, if you ask me.

It's the context of this interior *here* that tinged my reaction.

But I was sincere in endorsing her zeal for all things art, and in my gratitude for her opening her home to AT.

(and none of this envy is meant in ANY way to imply that I don't, myself, aspire to exactly this... especially as a Miami native who shares the opinion that white walls and crazy-blue sky-and-water views are the perfect background for an art collection)

Maybe I've been living in small spaces for so long but that place is too "cold" and intimidating for my taste. As much as I'd love a large kitchen that one looks like a classroom and the living room also looks like something out of a design school community room. Hey, toward the end of the slideshow was that a dead maid lying face down in the yard?

Oh Libby. I did mean Awful--thanks for that. :)

Karin - I'm the queen of typos. The ones that end up a word but not the intended one always seem to catch my eye especially after I created a report for a board of directors and accidentally left the "L" out of "public speaking" - wish spell-check would catch those oopses!

Libby,
Ha ha! I used to be an editor...and public without the l was something I did a "find" for every time before sending something off to print!

ummmm, I don't know, i'm by no means a "fraidy cat" but, I will no longer be able to sleep tonight, "after looking at whoopi golldberg and ted danson having a day of fun and frolick at the beach with a gas mask on, (at least they left the mask on for brunch)" But I do love the stairwell though (i think it's a stair well)

too bad though they have a wonderful view, just proves that too much money isn't always a good thing, (nor is a handy real-estate agen

I was relieved to read she doesn't live there any more especially after seeing the kitchen. Interesting art, but way too sterile. Cannot imagine living there.
nadine

The museum-like qualities have indeed overtaken the house-like qualities of her manse. That's a shame, because some of the best museums have been former mansions that have retained their house-like atmosphere.

As a piece of architecture and interior design it is bland. I can see why it isn't her home anymore. You can always tell when a house is over 6,000 sq.feet because the details and character of a smaller house are missing. Does anyone know of a house built in the past 40 years that is really, really big and yet works architecturally? Serious question.

She has some Gehry pieces because I suppose that is thought proper in a mansion-cum-museum. But otherwise the furniture lacks flair and is just filling up space, especially the dining chairs in the living room. Sometimes a monochromatic scheme comes across as simply colorless and not cool.

I feel bad for being negative, but just looking from the architecture and interior design perspective.

Appreciate some of the details and materials choices that could be employed at other (read: tiny) scales. I think the set of bookcases is very beautiful and like the finish choices in the kitchen.

Deeply ugly art collection, however.

PTOO, the Swiffer budget for this kind of living is astronomical. That is probably the least of the owner's concerns, though, and the pile of discards is probably a sculptural display in the eighth bedroom.

As far as the sterile and lack of life in the furniture- the art is the focus. I like she create an atmosphere that directs you to the art not anythinge else.

I like the art. It's different. But if she lived there, there would have to be a room with a lot of crap in it because I can't imagine any human living in such a sterile environment. I mean, you'd clearly notice if a hair fell out of your head. And I agree with P2 about it being on AT. I'd love to see it in AD and even in person but here? I hope it was intended as just fun and informational. But then, that's AT.

If those are Christopher Reeves eyes (and how do we know this) then who owns the nose?

Actually, I went there in like 1998 or 1999, when it was still lived in, and even then, it was pretty stark/severe/cold. I think it's part of her aesthetic, frankly. Even her choice of works by an artist like, say, Felix Gonzalez-Torres was especially austere--only white pieces by him, in a white gallery space. It was very obvious, moving through the space, that gallery space was added on and added on to an original domestic structure (somewhere in there).

Miami collectors used to graft museums onto their houses, then they started buying warehouses and turning them into private museum/galleries, and now the Rubells have actually grafted a residential space onto their former DEA warehouse/museum. The whole thing's coming full circle.

For all of you that wrote about the "visit" to our house, I must confess that we live there. The stairs you saw lead to our bedroom. We do not live across the street, as the article said. The kitchen is a real kitchen and believe me we do eat in the dining room. The house is our home, not a museum!
Rosa de la Cruz
April 2, 2006

I just want her job- whatever it is.

Where I come from, most of the people posting negative comments above are called 'haters.'

it's a nice spot. yes, kinda sterile, but it's obvious that ms. cruz wants it that way.

Does anybody know if the poster of the guy on the Rolls Royce in "Noel Coward returns" is from a movie poster?

AWFUL..., Rosa de la CRuz is the rudest person, you do not deserve any publicity but I will never recommend anybody to go to that exhibition with such a sterile environment. I will not go there on the next Art Basel.
Robert

What a fun place to live!

Yes, I said "live". Just because we can't see "the stuff" doesn't mean it isn't there. Good minimalist design finds a way to hide the clutter.

Besides, a true minimalist doesn't buy a lot of household junk she really doesn't need. Kudos to Rosa for spending her money by supporting emerging artists instead.