7 January 19-25, 2023 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | Contents | Letters | news | night+Day | CuLture | Cafe | MusiC | miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | 70s FOR SALE North Miami condo is a stunning time capsule. BY JESS SWANSON F or years, unconventional homes equipped with underwater scuba tunnels, creepy jail cells, and sub- terranean dome homes have graced the über-popular social media account Zillow Gone Wild, which scours millions of properties on the Zillow database to share the most “wild.” On Thurs- day, one uniquely Miami listing made the cut. Welcome to Unit 1610 at the Cricket Club condominium in North Miami. “[Every] home needs two things,” the Zil- low Gone Wild post teases, “ and this Miami home has both.” While Unit 1610 boasts sweeping views of Biscayne Bay and the downtown Miami sky- line, the account is most likely referring to the eyebrow-raising design of its two color- coordinated rooms: the pink room, a rotunda with mirrored ceilings and wall panels and a sumptuous bubblegum-pink couch, and the green room, which is steeped in shamrock- green wallpaper, wall-to-wall carpeting, and pillow accents. Both rooms evoke the feel- ings of a 1970s interior-design time capsule, and listing agent Judy Luck Jordan of Berk- shire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty has been bombarded with calls from inter- ested buyers and collectors all around the nation since the post went up. “It’s a unit in time,” Jordan tells New Times. “It’s even cooler than the photos look. People walk in and go, ‘Wow!’” So far, more than 50,000 users have liked the post across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. As the modern farmhouse aesthetic wanes in popularity, the online fascination with this unit speaks to the comeback of 1970s interior design. “The 1970s are definitively on trend in de- sign,” Giampiero Tagliaferri, principal of Stu- dio Tagliaferri and former creative director of Oliver Peoples, told Vogue earlier this year. “The design of the time was fun and sexy but still sophisticated — I think that heavily reso- nates with modern audiences.” “I’m expecting James Crockett (Don John- son) and Ricardo Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) to walk in at any moment, guns drawn, wearing clothes that match [the] decor in color,” commented one user on Facebook. “The exterior reminds me of the opening credits to the Golden Girls. I’d like to imagine this was Blanche’s party pad,” wrote another. “Omg! That pink circle couch room — it’s like you’re [sic] own Genie Bottle!” typed a third. The unit resides inside the storied Cricket Club, an upscale 21-story waterfront condominium built in 1975. Back then, the edifice lured in the glitterati and partygoers with its eponymous basement discotheque. Though the former discotheque has been converted into a storage area, Jordan says, the building remains a close-knit enclave that boasts a cocktail lounge, book clubs, holiday parties, and “tons of activities.” Jordan’s mother has lived in the building for nearly 40 years. “We used to go there and dance,” the real estate agent recalls of the Cricket Club. “They had these great red vinyl chairs. It was the place to go in the great days of John Travolta and all those songs.” Unit 1610 belonged to Norman and Bar- bara Shapiro, who, according to a recent obituary pub- lished in memory of the latter, moved to Miami in 1957 from Westbury, a small village on Long Island. Jordan was friends with their daughter, Marcia Shapiro, which is how she acquired the listing. While agents tend to dread listings with eclectic design quirks and routinely restage units in a bath of whites and creams, Jordan says she “didn’t touch a thing — nothing.” “It’s a gorgeous design and very unique,” Jordan says. “I showed it last night, and I was there for two hours on a call with a woman from Michigan who doesn’t want to change a thing.” Marcia Shapiro tells New Times her par- ents were among the first occupants in the building back in 1975 and lived there until their deaths. Norman Shapiro, who died in 2015, worked for a kitchen cabinet company. Barbara, who died at age 92 in 2021, was a re- altor who specialized in selling condomini- ums in Miami in the 1960s. “She was glamorous and gorgeous and like a movie star,” Marcia says of her mother, who also collected Lalique and Lladro crystal. “She was so proud of that apartment and always wanted people to come in and see it — even during COVID. She never changed a thing.” Marcia Shapiro says Bob Rubinstein Inte- riors designed the unit. Renowned interior designer Robert Rubenstein died in 2007, and his work had been featured in Interior Design Magazine; Woman’s Day; House and Garden; and Design Quarterly. A provided pamphlet from Bob Rubenstein Interiors features Unit 1610’s bubblegum-pink ro- tunda on its cover. Shapiro was in her 20s when her parents purchased the unit. Today she’s a grand- mother in her 70s who rescues dogs. The building’s weight limitation on pets prevents her from moving into the time-capsule condo. “I love that apartment, but there comes a time in life when you have to let go of the past,” Shapiro says. “But at least keep the rotunda,” she adds, mindful of a new buyer’s likely intentions. “I would go in there and lay on the floor and sofa and look up into the mirrors.” In addition to the pink and green rooms, Shapiro says, the unit is steeped in natural light, and with 2,320 square feet, spacious. It contains two bedrooms, his-and-hers closets, two balconies, and three bathrooms, all of which feature trippy polychromatic wallpaper and a fun house of wall mirrors from that era. It is listed at $529,000, with a $1,575 monthly homeowners association fee. “Furnished, with the right offer,” Jordan notes. [email protected] The pink room at Unit 1610 in the Cricket Club condominium SwiftPix Real Estate Photography | METRO | “THE DESIGN OF THE TIME WAS FUN AND SEXY BUT STILL SOPHISTICATED.”
