Sam Robin Design Blends Beachy Cool With Low-Key Luxe in a Penthouse on Fisher Island, Florida

By Kathryn O'Shea-Evans

When real estate brokers extol the virtues of location, location, location, they’re rarely lucky enough to be referencing a locale as postcard-perfect as Florida’s Fisher Island. The islet, a seven-minute ferry ride off Miami’s South Beach, is reportedly home to the highest per capita income in America. And no wonder: Once the property of William Kissam Vanderbilt II, it offers a treasure trove of competing eye candy from pristine gardens to beaches made of imported Bahamian sand—fresh combed each morning—to the glimmer of Biscayne Bay and the majestic Atlantic beyond. In short, Fisher Island is no place to gild the lily—which was exactly designer Sam Robin’s approach to a recent project there. “The views are so spectacular I wanted them to be the drama,” Robin says of the $19.7 million, 7,630-square-foot model unit she designed for Palazzo del Sol, a new residential tower on Fisher Island’s northeastern shore. “When there’s too much fabric, too much color, too much stuff going on, you get tired of the layering,” she continues. “Especially in Miami, where it’s hot, you want a fresh feeling. In South Florida, we favor casual elegance.”