LOOKING UP – Audubon room remade to draw a crowd

LOOKING UP – Audubon room remade to draw a crowd - A little girl in a pink flower - Floral design
Interior designer Sasha Bikoff and Cori Wolfson at the Audubon House. MANDY MILES/Keys Weekly

A newly redesigned room at Key West’s  Audubon House and Tropical Gardens surprised some visitors Tuesday evening with its key lime-colored, art-deco sofa, bird holograms on the ceiling and faux plants hanging from an Astroturf-covered ceiling. 

But the younger crowd, which the room was meant to attract for weddings and special events, stepped right up to the brightly papered walls and started posing and posting. 

“John Audubon was so inspired by the colors in nature that he found in Key West, I wanted to stay in keeping with the roots of Key West while also catering to a younger crowd,” said Sasha Bikoff, the interior designer who conceptualized and assembled the new look for the third-floor room that opens to the public on Thursday, Nov. 21.

“We’re calling it ‘#AudubonExperience,’ and ‘#liveyourwildlife.”

Holograms of birds soar on ceiling-mounted flat screens throughout the room while the sounds of birds that are native to the Florida Keys fill the room from speakers hidden among the faux orchids, bromeliads and greenery that hang from the ceiling.

“We wanted to be cutting-edge,” says Cori Mizrahi Wolfson, the creative director for the redesign, who selected Bikoff for the project. “And we also wanted to make sure that the younger generation is able to appreciate this artwork; to create a room where they are able to understand it and feel connected to it. We live in such a world where it’s all about Instagram; it’s all about, you know, engaging all of our five senses, and we really wanted our audience in every age group really to connect with it.”

Mandy Miles drops stuff, breaks things and falls down more than any adult should. An award-winning writer, reporter and columnist, she's been stringing words together in Key West since 1998. "Local news is crucial," she says. "It informs and connects a community. It prompts conversation. It gets people involved, holds people accountable. The Keys Weekly takes its responsibility seriously. Our owners are raising families in Key West & Marathon. Our writers live in the communities we cover - Key West, Marathon & the Upper Keys. We respect our readers. We question our leaders. We believe in the Florida Keys community. And we like to have a good time." Mandy's married to a saintly — and handy — fishing captain, and can't imagine living anywhere else.