An aluminum-clad marble canopy shades the rooftop pool terrace, which is outfitted with Vesta Home daybeds, a Liaigre side table, and Hermès towels. Photo: Manolo Yllera
The first project interior designer Andrew Torrey was hired to take on for a New York City–based couple several years ago was their family duplex in Manhattan. Torrey’s initial brief was short and sweet, giving him carte blanche to “do his thing,” as he puts it. The project was clearly a bit of a test, which the designer passed with flying colors. He has since gone on to do a handful of other projects with the clients, including a stunning oceanfront penthouse just north of Miami Beach, in the enclave of Surfside.
The nearly 7,700-square-foot apartment, spread across three floors of a 12-story tower, came fully furnished, and the family used it immediately. They originally envisioned it as a winter getaway but found that they loved being there so much that they wanted to visit year-round. That’s when they called in Torrey.
A Gregor Hildebrandt artwork set against a cloudlike Holly Hunt wall covering presides over the family room of a triplex apartment designed by Andrew Torrey in Surfside, a community near Miami Beach. Torrey paired a Raphael Navot lounge chair upholstered in Loro Piana cashmere with a vintage mirrored Karl Springer cocktail table. Photo: Manolo Yllera
“The family ended up spending a lot of time here, and when they were ready, they really knew how they liked to live and use the apartment,” says the designer. “It’s all about a casual lifestyle. And the views.”
The renovations, which took a solid 12 months of planning and construction, were mostly cosmetic, although Torrey did convert the dining room into a big, family-driven TV room, and he expanded the kitchen, where he installed a huge curved banquette that seats ten comfortably around a marble-top table and takes advantage of drop-dead ocean vistas. Guess which are the two most popular spots in the house?
One of David Hockney's colorful pool lithographs hangs in the entry, framed by bronze-and-glass screens by Torrey, who also designed the living room's sofas, the rug made by Stark, and the mirror that hangs across from an Ellen von Unwerth photograph of model Claudia Schiffer. The multipart David/Nicolas table was a custom commission, a pair of vintage Pierre Paulin lounge chairs flank an Eric Schmitt bronze side table from Ralph Pucci, the lamps are by RH, and Vincenzo de Cotiis conceived the standing screen at left. Photo: Manolo Yllera
In addition, Torrey enlarged the laundry room, built a prep kitchen, and completely overhauled the roof deck. He also wire-brushed and cerused the floors to give them more character, redesigned all of the lighting, and refinished ceilings and walls throughout in limewashed plaster. Elegant curtains were added to some of the floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding glass walls that open to the wraparound terraces, which go on forever.
“They have strong, clear taste,” says Torrey. “They wanted this to be true Miami. Fun, memorable, and different from their other homes. We embraced Art Deco Miami but in a contemporary way.”
In the kitchen, Torrey created a family-friendly banquette in a Scalamandré fabric with a bespoke marble table and a Rogan Gregory light fixture floating above; a series of Roy Lichtenstein works animates one wall, the cabinetry is by Poliform, and Grohe made the faucet. Photo: Manolo Yllera
The apartment is arrayed with collectible design and custom pieces by Torrey and other preeminent artisans. In the living room, sprawling channel-tufted mohair sofas that Torrey devised join groovy-chic Pierre Paulin lounge chairs and a Loro Piana CashFur-upholstered, curved sofa by Raphael Navot around a multisegment sculptural travertine table specially created by the studio David/Nicolas with reeded sides and tops with stainless-steel inlays.
Torrey says that the clients “love commissioning pieces” like the table and that they joined in discussions with studio founders David Raffoul and Nicolas Moussallem about its design. “We all met and sketched the concept together of this giant coffee table based on work they had previously created.”
“We embraced Art Deco Miami but in a contemporary way”
Andrew Torrey
David/Nicolas also made a desk with two hidden, motorized computer screens in the primary bedroom, which Torrey furnished with memorable accent pieces, such as a Rick Owens plywood daybed, an India Mahdavi folding screen with lively scallop shell forms, and a biomorphic table by Rogan Gregory. Underfoot, a rug designed by George Nakashima for Edward Fields flutters with abstract birdlike forms. The room’s palette is composed of dusty blue, the client’s favorite color, and pale, sandy tones, echoing the beachfront landscape outside.
A shapely Christopher Miano mirror enlivens the all-travertine primary bath, which is curtained in a Loro Piana fabric. Photo: Manolo Yllera
A Daniel Arsham sculpture overlooks the living area, where Torrey devised a bronze-and-marble corner bar with Maxime Boutillier stools and vintage Max Ingrand pendants for FontanaArte. Photo: Manolo Yllera
Also important to the apartment’s vibe are a range of lively artworks, not least David Hockney’s Afternoon Swimming (1979), which provides a spirited welcome in the entry. The clients selected every work themselves, acquiring most from Art Basel Miami Beach. The list of artists, impressive by any standards, includes Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Gregor Hildebrandt, and Daniel Arsham, who is represented by an oversize bust perched along a wall of windows in the living room, looking as though it had been born to live in front of that stunning view and overlook all of the festivities.
Torrey attributes the project’s success to mutual trust and a shared vision. The result is a home that’s as captivating in daytime, when it’s all about the play of sun and sea, as it is at night, radiating with seductive glamour beneath the stars.
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2025 Spring Issue under the headline “Splash Pad.” Subscribe to the magazine.
Cover: One of David Hockney's colorful pool lithographs hangs in the entry, framed by bronze-and-glass screens by Torrey, who also designed the living room's sofas, the rug made by Stark, and the mirror that hangs across from an Ellen von Unwerth photograph of model Claudia Schiffer. The multipart David/Nicolas table was a custom commission, a pair of vintage Pierre Paulin lounge chairs flank an Eric Schmitt bronze side table from Ralph Pucci, the lamps are by RH, and Vincenzo de Cotiis conceived the standing screen at left.
Photo: Manolo Yllera
