Steve Wynn’s planned beach cabana hits new snag with Palm Beach board

For the second time, the Palm Beach Architectural Commission has thrown a wet blanket on the design of a beach cabana that casino billionaire Steve Wynn wants to build at his estate.

Casino-and-resort billionaire Steve Wynn has so far been unsuccessful in getting the town’s Architectural Commission to approve a beach cabana he wants to build at his estate.
On Nov. 21, the design panel deferred the cabana project for a restudy — the second time the board has done so.
Some commissioners said during the November meeting that the cabana’s Mediterranean-style architecture was too elaborate and overscaled.
The cabana would look out of place in the oceanfront neighborhood, some commissioners said.

Even the design of a small seaside building can generate waves of controversy in Palm Beach.

Such was the case when a beach cabana proposed for casino-and-resort billionaire Steve Wynn’s estate sailed into a squall at the most recent meeting of the town board tasked with approving new architecture in the town.

For the second time, the Palm Beach Architectural Commission said the design of the cabana wasn’t a good fit for the prominent — and scenic — stretch of coastal road just north of Sloan’s Curve.

But the design was getting better, commissioners generally agreed when they took a second look at the proposed building Nov. 21. Their discussion ended with a unanimous vote to defer the project to their meeting Jan. 28, when they would review revisions.

At the request of the board, the 278-square-foot cabana had undergone significant changes — and had been moved 35 feet to the north — since it was first presented in September for Wynn’s estate at 1960 S. Ocean Blvd.

On Sept. 25, commissioners had criticized the initial design as far too plain, dull and boxy, with Alternate Member David Phoenix going so far as to compare the cabana to an old-fashioned mobile home. “This looks like a double-wide with French doors,” Phoenix said in September.

To fix the problem, some commissioners suggested two months ago that Smith Architectural Group borrow elements from the Mediterranean-style mansion Wynn shares with his wife, Andrea, across the street.

The design team did just that. The redesign featured a barrel-tile roof, pink stucco exterior, decorative quoins at the corners, tiled niches, arched windows and a revamped railing for the deck and stairs that lead down to the beach.

On the side facing South Ocean Boulevard, the new design broke up the previously uninterrupted facade by pushing out the central portion. That design decision was made “to add interest to the massing and roofline” and boosted the size of the building by 28 square feet, Sophia Bacon of Smith Architectural Group told the board during her presentation.

But the redesign may have gone to far, some commissioners said during their second review.

Although board members by and large liked how the cabana had been moved significantly to the north, they were concerned that the building would still overly disrupt the so-called “scenic vista” of the oceanfront in the neighborhood. Even so, the cabana would meet all the town’s requirements for preserving that vista along the beach.

Northbound drivers, in particular, have long enjoyed the sudden appearance of a long stretch of ocean as they emerge from nearby Sloan’s Curve — and the building could prove to be a distraction, some commissioners said. The revised location would place it 410 feet north of the curve and it would be the first cabana that drivers would see as they headed north. There wouldn’t be another cabana for 800 feet, although one on that stretch at 1820 S. Ocean Blvd. has been approved by the town but has never been built.

Commissioner K.T. Catlin said she was torn about the merits of the redesign. On the one hand, she acknowledged that the cabana was “pretty.” But on the other, she was not convinced it was the right choice for “this wide open vista” and worried that the cabana would be “jarring to the eye.”

Commissioner Elizabeth Connaughton had similar reservations.

“I think (the architecture) might be a little too busy for a structure of this size and use,” she said. “Sometimes I (have seen) a few these structures that are over-designed. I think you pushed it in a direction that is good, but I think you went a little too far, in my opinion.”

Phoenix also wasn’t sold on the architecture. He suggested that instead of a Mediterranean-style building to complement the 2003 house, perhaps the cabana should have more unassuming “Old Palm Beach” architecture — it could look as if it had been there long before the mansion was built. He suggested that the facade might be covered in weathered coquina stone.

“Think about it almost like a grotto,” Phoenix said.

Others on the panel, however, liked the architectural direction the building had taken.

“You did a great job,” Alternate Commissioner Sue Patterson told Bacon.

The revision, Patterson said, showed the design team “had listened to all our comments.”

But, Patterson added, “maybe you could tone down the architecture a little.”

Other commissioners, including Kenn Karakul and Claudia Visconti, suggested that the landscaping plan by Nievera Williams Design needed to be beefed up.

“The key is to make it (look) more natural from the north and south sides,” which would be most easily viewed by drivers on South Ocean Boulevard, Karakul said.

In his remarks, Vice Chairman Richard Sammons said some of the elements on the revised cabana, including the roof tiles and the quoins, were simply too large.

“This is a miniature building,” he noted, later adding that the cabana had been designed for a “very, very prominent place.”

In the decision to defer the project to January, Phoenix voted in place of Chairman Jeffery Smith, who as principal of Smith Architectural Group had recused himself from the discussion.

As designed, the project would require the Town Council to grant two code variances related to how far the cabana would be set back from the property line, in part to ensure it would not interfere with existing rocky outcroppings that serve as a breakwater on the beach. The council would also have to approve a “special exception” to build the cabana in the zoning district that governs the Estate Section neighborhood.

Wynn bought his ocean-to-lake estate through an ownership company for a recorded $43 million in 2019 and has since carried out remodeling and other projects there that required the approval of the Architectural Commission.

Forbes estimates his net worth at $3.9 billion. He is the former chairman and CEO of Wynn Resorts, which he cofounded.

Darrell Hofheinz is a USA TODAY Network of Florida journalist who writes about Palm Beach real estate in his weekly “Beyond the Hedges” column. He welcomes tips about real estate news on the island. Email [email protected], call 561-820-3831 or tweet @PBDN_Hofheinz. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

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