Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/193668
Samuel Amoia is seeing sunny skies. It's not just because his fledgling interior design studio, Samuel Amoia Associates, has a dozen projects (and counting) booked before the year is out, or because he's launching a collection of furniture, Studio Amoia, this fall, or even because his own apartment, "which always ends up on the bottom of the list," is nearing completion. It's because we're sitting in Miami, on the job site of one of four projects he's working on in a place he fondly refers to as "just a few hours outside of New York." "I definitely need to open a second office in Miami," says Amoia. "This is the third time I've been down here in the last two weeks." His main focus in Miami at the moment is Starwood Capital Group's new 1 Hotel & Residences, the beachfront property (formerly the Gansevoort) for which he's creating the template for its condo units. "It's all about uncomplicated luxury," he says, citing raw materials like cerused wood, linen "and plaster everywhere. It should evoke memories of exotic travel— trips to Bali, Tunisia, Morocco—this is for the client who has the means, but is looking for that authentic experience above all." The Starwood Capital relationship is one that is continuing to develop: Amoia was hired to redesign the sales center for the Baccarat Hotel & Residences in New York, opening next year, and the Flatiron apartment of one of the company's executives. Although Amoia, who cut his teeth at Stephen Sills Associates, has an enviable coterie of friends—including Stephen Cheuk, for whom he just completed S<10, a private gym in Tribeca; Celeste and Satu Greenberg, founders of Tuleste Market; and Scott Studenberg and John Targon of Baja East, with whom he's launching Inner Circle, a retail concept, next year—some of his latest clients have come from a completely outer circle source: Instagram. "It's wild, I only have like 1,500 followers, but I've gotten quite a few inquiries that way," he says, "and three of my most recent clients have found me on Instagram." He's also received a call to appear on a reality TV show involving Nate Berkus (he declined) and met Fernando Mastrangelo (see page TK), with whom he's collaborating on a collection of sculptural pieces. "We're working on this massive rock-salt bar that's really incredible," he says of a piece that may end up in one of the rooms he's designing in Miami for the Elle Decor Modern Life Concept House in December. "We speak the same language and have a lot of the same reference points. It's going to be interesting to see where this collaboration goes." ONE TO WATCH With a few high-profile clients and a little help from Instagram, Samuel Amoia's star is quickly on the rise. BY TALI JAFFE 62 CULTURED PHOTO BY LUCIANO FREITAS Samuel Amoia, above; sketches of his first furniture line and swatches for one of his current projects litter a mood board in his Chelesa office.