VERSACE'S HOME IN SOUTH BEACH

"Casa Casaurina"
1116 Ocean Drive
Miami Beach

Lovely Casa Casaurina is the only private residence along Ocean Drive and it’s also certainly Miami-Dade County’s most macabre photo op.

In 1992 haute couturier Gianni Versace bought the Amsterdam Palace apartment building to restore it to its former majesty. The building had been built in 1930 for Standard Oil treasurer Alden Freeman as a 16^th Century Mediterranean-style villa resembling the home of Diego Columbus in the Dominican Republic. (Diego Columbus was Christopher Columbus’ son.) Versace also bought the Revere Hotel next door and leveled it to build a patio and pool area. All told, he pumped more than $6.6 million into the buildings. When renovations were complete, the result was a grandiose Rococo mishmash of colors and textures -- Moorish tile, fine fabrics on the walls, lavish mosaics, busts throughout and high-profile artwork hanging from the walls. It all served to make Versace South Beach’s most visible resident.

Shortly before 9am on Tuesday, July 15, 1997, Versace was returning home from his morning walk to the local newsstand and bent to unlock the black wrought-iron gate in front of his home when he was confronted by Andrew Cunanan, who fired two shots into his head. Versace was Cunanan’s fifth victim in a cross-country killing spree. Cunanan fled from the scene and eluded police for eight days before committing suicide in a houseboat anchored in Indian Creek along Collins Avenue 41 blocks north of Casa Casaurina.

Casa Casaurina is closed to the public, but tourists line up to be photographed on the steps in front of the gate – the spot where the mortally injured Versace slumped, bleeding, to the ground. He was pronounced dead at the Ryder Trauma Center at UM/Jackson Memorial Hospital.

The name "Casaurina" sounds rather elegant, but in truth, the Casaurina tree is very common in South Florida. It’s better known as the Australian pine.

Hint: If you, too, must have your picture taken where Versace was slain, the light is better in the morning hours.