Naval architect Sebastian Phillips brings his maritime experience to Miami, creating the innovative floating event space The Vessel as an ode to the ships that have come before it.

Naval architect Sebastian Phillips meant to start a side project during the pandemic. Almost three years later, he and his father created a floating maritime marvel. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE VESSEL MIAMI

Thanks to architectural developments and design visionaries flocking to Miami, the Magic City continues to see incredible innovation. Now, it welcomes a new masterpiece: The Vessel (thevesselmiami.com), part of a series of floating platforms created by naval architect Sebastian Phillips, president of Marine Design Dynamics. Taking inspiration from various ship designs throughout history, The Vessel provides a unique venue for events—from art and fashion shows to high-end culinary experiences, weddings, fitness classes and customdesigned gatherings. As the son of a shipwright who built traditional wooden boats, Phillips has been around vessels for decades, spending much of his childhood exploring old ships in Manhattan’s South Street Seaport. “The museum libraries at that time were places where I could pore through nautical magazines and books about 19th-century ships and yachts,” Phillips says. “My heroes were Nat Herreshoff, John Alden and Olin Stephens.” Read on for how he’s continuing their legacy.

HOW IT STARTED

“My father’s family is from the Pacific Coast of Chile and several generations of Phillips men have worked in the maritime field. I spent many boyhood days on a classic wooden schooner docked at South Street Seaport, where my father restored and maintained the museum’s aging fleet of historic vessels, including square riggers, schooners, a lightship and a tugboat. Though I grew up on the Lower East Side, summers and weekends, staying with my dad, I worked and played on those ships steeped in their design and construction methods.”

THE ELEMENTS

“Most of The Vessel, from the lights to the railings and even the furniture, is custom fabricated. The green patina derives from copper sheathing placed on wooden ship hulls, as far back as the 1760s, to protect them from marine growth. The steel rails with varnished wood rub rails are derived from traditional cruise ship railings, such as the SS United States. My father constructed the traditional scarf joints between the wood planks. When Marine Design Dynamics won the NYC Staten Island Ferry engineering contract, we were immersed in designs for a new ferry. The iconic Staten Island Ferry has remained virtually unchanged since the late 1800s, with only a few practical innovations. The Vessel’s exposed overhead deck beams reflect the beams found in photos of early ferries.”

WHAT’S NEXT

“For me, The Vessel is a prototype test platform. We’re testing every aspect of its operations, logistics, systems, and at-sea transfer of passengers. My ultimate goal is to build a series of floating islands, beginning in Miami and then moving out beyond Biscayne Bay to other cities. As the Navy says, ‘build a little, test a lot.’”