Never mind lions and tigers. It's a bear on a 14th-floor balcony that has residents of the Palace condominium in Brickell going "Oh my!"
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Alex Roy put a taxidermied American black bear on top of his patio furniture in mid-February. |
"Not everyone
appreciates it," Roy says with a shrug, "but I have a
3-year-old who thinks it's great."
The Arquitectonica-designed Palace, with its geometric, red
tiers, is immediately recognizable on the city skyline.
Though the building, which went up just south of SE 15th
Road in 1981, has 42 floors, Roy — who is a rally race
driver, podcaster, and director of special operations at the
self-driving car technology company Argo AI — scored a unit
in one of the famed "red steps" when he moved to Miami last
October.
Roy admits he didn't read all the paperwork and was peeved
to learn that the building forbids all pets except for
service animals.
"I don't have a dog but, like Larry David, I'd like to have
the choice," he says. "I saw other people with dogs, and I
thought it was an injustice since they can't all be service
animals."
That's when Roy decided it was time to take his taxidermy
bear out of storage and positioned it on the patio table
"for maximum visibility."
He wasn't concerned with a clash in interior décor — he
already fills his home with all sorts of eccentric curios,
including "three entire [taxidermy] animals and at least a
dozen heads and skulls."
But out on the balcony, with its sweeping views of Biscayne
Bay, things can get windy. Roy leaves the 30-pound bear
outside, rain or shine.
"Sometimes I'd come home and he'd be on the other side of
the patio," Roy admits. "Some days the wind completely
rotated him around."
That's why Roy can understand that in certain weather
conditions, and from certain vantage points, it might appear
as though the bear has come back to life.
"I would chain him down," he says, "but that would probably
scare everyone even more."