“Finding a diamond in the rough” describes how Robert Brown and Todd Davis felt the first time they laid eyes on this historic property with a celebrated past. “We’d been told that the house was designed by L. Murray Dixon in the late 1930s and that it hadn’t been occupied for some time,” Brown recalls. “It had gotten so lost among the overgrown landscaping.”

The eminent architect’s name conjures images of classic, Art Deco hotels in Miami Beach he designed more than 70 years ago, including the Victor, The Raleigh, The Tides and The Ritz Plaza, as well as a number of private residences, such as this Biscayne Bay gem built in 1938.