Hermes Mallea's “Escape"

Between 1920 and 1970, thanks to an unprecedented confluence of talent, vision, wealth and natural beauty, the Caribbean went from a sleepy,

agricultural backwater to a tourism hotspot in just 50 years. The region’s unspoiled nature promised visitors an escape from the realities of their

daily lives.

ESCAPE by Hermes Mallea

Ed. Note: Today's piece by Hermes Malleais written around his new book “Escape,” which is about the history

of Resort Life in the Caribbean. “Escape” is a beautiful book, as well as a history and social history of that

part of the world. It's coffee table-sized and so the images are luscious and generous in conveying the message.

Now, in the 21st century, almost the entire area is a mecca for people all over the world in search of a warm

winter’s sun.

The glamour of a Caribbean holiday was popularized to a large extent by fashion and travel magazines, as

well as gossip columns which brought the fantasy life to the folks back home – inspiring them to dream of

living, dressing and having fun like the very rich on holiday.

Marilyn Monroe and playwright Arthur Miller enjoying dinner with friends during their 1957 honeymoon at the Jamaica Inn.

The informal yet elegant lifestyle that has come to be associated with the best of the Caribbean was first fleshed

out in the exclusive enclaves profiled in ESCAPE.

The stylish Audrey Pleydell Bouverie, a good friend of the queen mother, enjoys her needlepoint in the central patio that was the heart of her

Bahamas home designed by Palm Beach architect John Volk.

In writing ESCAPE I was able to draw on my personal perspective. As a Cuban: my genetic connection to

region helps me visualize the Caribbean as a mosaic of distinct islands with very different personalities.

As an architect, I help our firm’s clients escape the pressures of urban living to getaways custom-made for their

personal style. So, I understand the process of making a client’s dreams buildable that is at the core of the

houses and resorts I selected as the milestones of my design history of Caribbean travel. When presented all

together – something which has never been done before – they tell a fascinating story.

The colonnade at Point Lookout, designed by Oliver Messel on a spit of land between two beaches on Mustique, an island known for encouraging all

architectural as well as all lifestyle fantasies.

My goal in writing ESCAPE was to transport the reader back to the glamorous heyday when the international

smart set made these resorts the most stylish places in the world.

Since the days of Colonel Bradley’s casino, Palm Beach has loved gambling. Mrs. Benjamin Black, Raymond Schindler, Jerry Rowen, Betty

Bosworth and Mrs. Schindler enjoy an al fresco game of canasta in 1955.

My previous book, Great Houses of Havana, celebrated bygone romance of the Cuban capital. This new book

also celebrates romance – in fact if a single word sums up ESCAPE, that word is romance, because a getaways

to the Caribbean has always been associated with the promise of the romance that is missing from our daily

lives.

ESCAPE is a story of the extraordinary individuals who created the setting for this glamorous life to take place:

the home owners, tourism pioneers, socially-connected innkeepers and talented designers who made these

fantasy playgrounds a reality.

Above all, ESCAPE celebrates home-owners falling in love with an idyllic site and imagining the new life they

could make for themselves there.

ESCAPE chronicles the efforts of architects and designers who explored the requirements of a gentleman’s home transported to a warm weather

setting, reflecting the increasingly informal lifestyle with an emphasis on connections to the outdoors.

This is one of my favorite images, showing Irenee duPont with the staff of his Cuban beach house, Xanadu. It illustrates the effort required to

transport an American industrialists’ lifestyle to the as yet undiscovered sands of Varadero Beach. Not to mention all the infrastructure that had to

go in before his architects could break ground on the house. Throughout the book the passion of the home builders like duPont trumped the many

challenges they encountered when building at a remote site.

Among the many Innovative vacation concepts first developed in the Caribbean were the Rock Resorts:

providing communion with unspoiled nature in a setting of discrete contemporary architecture – reflecting the

philosophy and style of tourism visionary Laurance Rockefeller.

The Rock Resorts’ Caneel Bay property was accessible only by launch and oriented to the enjoyment of a vacation on the water, with seven unspoiled

beaches,

Another innovator was Jamaica’s John Pringle who pioneered an early form of time-share at Round Hill resort,

selling his fancy friends simple cottages which took advantage of the resort’s amenities without the bother of

maintaining a second home.

Life magazine’s cover story on Round Hill featured Mrs. Pringle, a former Ford model, enjoying beach front chess with John McConnell. This image

captures the relaxed yet stylish atmosphere of this celebrity colony, where café society went to let their hair down.

I’m fascinated by socially connected innkeepers, who not only created their own distinctive resorts, they

convinced their friends to share their dream and invest in the new playground.

Ronald Tree created the Sandy Lane Hotel in Barbados, attracting international celebrities with a convivial atmosphere that was said to feel like an

exclusive house party. Here, his wife Marietta shelters beneath a parasol in the oceanfront gardens of their home, Heron Bay – one of the most

beautiful houses in the Caribbean.

Each of the resorts profiled in ESCAPE had a distinctive personality, based on the natural setting, the

architectural design and the shared interests or background of the community of members.

Architect and tourism visionary, Happy Ward set the deliberately low key esthetic that characterized the original Mill Reef style: confident, informal

and comfortable.

Huntington Hartford was a resort dreamer – envisioning every detail of his Nassau Ocean Club, based on his

intimate knowledge of the world’s most exclusive getaways. He was more successful at creating a stylish resort

– pictured on the cover of ESCAPE – than he was at managing a profitable hotel.

The development of tourism in the Caribbean was made possible by the expansion of post war air travel. The arrival of Pan Am’s weekly flight from

New York, known in Antigua as the Mill Reef Special was often greeted with rum punch and a steel band.

Designers working in the region were fortunate to draw on the abundance of historic regional styles that

conveyed the individuality of islands. One island that was especially rich in historic architecture was Barbados

Fustic House illustrates theatrical designer, Oliver Messel’s talent for expanding Barbados plantation houses to appear as if they had been sitting in

the tropical landscape for centuries. His designs perfected an informal yet elegant indoor-outdoor lifestyle with gardens blurring the connection

between the house & its surroundings.

A sense of fantasy became part of the brand in resorts like Coral Gables, where visionary developer George

Merrick employed a Mediterranean style architecture that might have been built there by the conquistadors if

they had actually landed on that part of the South Florida coast.

ESCAPE is about the home-owner’s search for an appropriate resort lifestyle that reflects their personal

standards while remaining appropriate to a warm weather getaway.

At Government House in Nassau, the Duchess of Windsor worked to create a suitable setting for her husband when he was Governor of the Bahamas

– balancing the stateliness of a royal palace with the informality of a warm weather getaway. The stylish furniture, wallpaper and elegant curtains

were all part of the Duchess’ improvements.

Babe Paley’s Round Hill cottage is a milestone of resort design, a house that re-imagined traditional room use for the warm weather – boiling things

down to an open air living room flanked by two open-air bedrooms – and that’s it.

Resorts represent specific moments in culture – they enjoy their heyday and then they often disappear.

Haiti’s Habitation LeClerc, represented the hedonism of the 1970s disco era brought to the tropics. Owner Olivier Coquelin offered visitors from

around the globe an uninhibited vacation destination.

Resort owners juggled maintaining traditions that loyal customers loved with staying fresh to attract visitors

always on the lookout for the next fashionable spot.

Savvy hoteliers know they need to reinvent to stay relevant – take the Ralph Lauren team’s recent facelift of

the Round Hill resort.

The excitement of catching a blackfin tuna in Caribbean waters teaming also w/ blue marlin, wahoo, bonefish & tarpon.

The region’s timeless natural beauty continues to capture our imagination with a promise of the romance that is

missing from our daily lives.

Weary jetsetters relax by the pool of Olivier Coquelin’s Plantation des Cocoyers, located on a private island off the Haitian coast.

http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/travel/2014/hermes-malleas-escape