The district of art déco buildings in Miami Beach is a unique example of the architecture of the 1930s and 1940s. The style of the buildings expressed hope for a better future coming after almost a decade of the Great Depression. Usually art déco is associated with numerous geometric ornaments, gold, black and elegance, but in the case of the Miami Beach Architectural District we are talking about a late phase of this style called Streamline Moderne. Interestingly, the district was the home of Gianni Versace.
Swamp paradise
At the beginning of the 20th century, the area of today’s Miami Beach was one big swamp, typical of this part of Florida. However, everything changed around 1916 when one of the pioneers of private US highways, Carl G. Fisher, arrived in the Miami area. By 1918, he would complete the Dixie Highway, a road leading from Michigan to the tip of the Florida peninsula. While exploring the land around Miami, Fisher saw the potential of developing a swampy island separating the ocean from the rest of the peninsula. Highway earnings helped fund Miami Beach, destined to be a paradise on earth. From the 1920s onwards, Fisher began to promote a settlement campaign in this rather hostile and exotic land. The entrepreneurial movement proved successful, and fancier and fancier estates and resorts began to spring up on the island. The end of development came with a brutal hurricane in 1926, which destroyed the overwhelming majority of the town’s buildings. Fisher fell into depression and debt, and his dream city was turned to ruin.
The Great Depression further battered the resort town. It should also be noted that after the 1926 tragedy, almost 25,000 people were left homeless. This meant that Miami Beach had to rise again as soon as possible and start attracting wealthy tourists. This plan was gradually implemented, but the real chance of completion only came at the end of the economic collapse.
Late Art Déco
The current Miami Beach Architectural District was built along Ocean Drive located right next to the ocean. Hotels and restaurants began to attract wealthy, mainly white, North Americans as well as wealthy Europeans. The shopping street Lincoln Road, on the other hand, quickly became a centre for luxury shopping. Pastel colours and simplistic decorations made the area one large and fashionable resort. The demographic and tourist explosion continued until the late 1940s.
Lawrence Murray Dixon, Henry Hohauser and Albert Anis were behind a good portion of the district’s art déco designs. The architects specialised in luxury hotels located mainly on Ocean Drive and 5th Street. Their art déco consisted of much simpler, dynamic forms, horizontal or vertical facade lines and pastel colours. Late art déco was also maritime-inspired, evident in the aquatic ornamentation and rounded walls reminiscent of ship shapes.
Hotel like a cruise ship
The facade of the Cavalier Hotel, designed by Roy F. France from 1936. The colourful ornamentation, arranged in geometric, abstract patterns, is reminiscent of ornaments familiar from the New York classics. Unlike northern art déco, the Cavalier does not rely on dark metal details. The façade is arranged in elongated, vertical lines and painted in bright, pastel colours associated with the ocean.
The dynamic Streamline Moderne style is particularly noticeable in hotels built at the very end of the 1930s. In the case of the Breakwater Hotel, the horizontal lines of the façade are noticeable, broken by a large vertical sign post. The windows that wrap around the building are low and long, like those on a ship, and the nautical character is complemented by the colours blue and white. The whole can be likened to a large captain’s bridge.
Most of the hotels on Ocean Drive have a symmetrical facade with an ornate sign. The 1939 Marlin Hotel is the quintessential art déco style in Miami Beach. Simple vertical panels with floral ornamentation are inscribed with rounded horizontal wings. The low, wide windows that wrap around the building reappear. The ground floor is lined with stone and the decorated floor inside is made of stucco.
There are also exceptions to the rule of symmetry, which also impress with their ingenuity. The Palmer House Hotel designed by Lawrence Dixon is arranged in vertical lines with long windows. The hotel’s special feature, however, is a tower reminiscent of a 1930s lighthouse or art déco cafe. The tower makes its mark on the façade with its vertical lines. The façade consists of white limestone and green stone on the ground floor. In the past, the building still had light green accents.
Many of Miami Beach’s ornate buildings were used as part of film sets. The Carlyle Hotel was the filming location for films such as: “Scarface Man”, “Bad Boys 2” and “The Birdcage”. The building was constructed in 1941 and features an ornate white façade with openwork ornaments. Its colour scheme foreshadows the simplistic colours of the coming 1940s.
A departure into simplicity
The final period of development in the district was characterised by increasingly simple shapes and colours. One building on the borderline between art déco and international modernism is the Hotel Delano. The white skyscraper was built in 1947 and towers over the entire area. It used to be the city’s tallest building, measuring 58 metres. The white stepped façade retains the axis of symmetry and angular shapes familiar from international modernism. The building has fine circular decoration on the ground floor and a winged tower on the roof.
Quite a symbolic event for the district was the establishment of the Emanu-el synagogue in 1948. In the 1920s and 1930s, Jews were not allowed to buy plots of land in Miami Beach. However, resentment against wealthy Jewish entrepreneurs from the north did not stop their settlement. In the 1940s, the Jewish community grew larger and built more and more buildings. In time, Jews looking for an exotic place to retire began arriving in Miami Beach. Among them were also a number of casino-controlling gangsters such as Grodno-born Meyer Lansky.
The Emanu-el Synagogue is one of the most beautiful in the entire United States. The Byzantine-Moorish style of the synagogue is reminiscent of Middle Eastern temples. The sand-coloured building and the openwork ornamentation above the entrance are precisely elements of Neo-Moorish architecture. Art déco, on the other hand, is noticeable in the angular, geometric arrangement of the volumes, the copper roofs and the expensive stone at the entrance. An interesting detail is the Star of David and the two decalogue tablets above the sign.
5th Avenue South
The boundary of the art déco district is Lincoln Road, which is the city’s main shopping street. Carl Fisher was the originator of the street, which was intended to compete with New York’s 5th Avenue. Lincoln Road did indeed become an important pedestrian thoroughfare, along which salons and shops of luxury brands were established. Today, many popular shops are housed in historic 1930s edifices. The Guess shop, for example, is a former Cadillac showroom, as evidenced by the preserved corner façade decorated with art-deco bas-relief. The ornaments depict the company logo, aeroplanes, a thunderstorm and cars lined up in a row.
Palm trees, murders and cops
In the 1960s, Miami Beach became a city of affluent retirees looking for a suitable place to spend the last years of their lives. The problem was that this nature of the city discouraged young tourists from enjoying the beaches and hotels. Many buildings declined and it was not until the late 1970s that the Miami Design Preservation League movement made an effort to make the art déco district a protected monument. It was thanks to Barbara Baer Capitman that Miami Beach returned to being a fashionable holiday destination. Andy Warhol’s visit to the city and the TV series ‘Miami Vice’ further promoted the district in the 1980s. Unfortunately, the murder by serial killer Andrew Cunanan of Gianni Versace also contributed to the city’s publicity. The fashion designer lived for years in his mansion on Ocean Drive, and his tragic death shocked the world.
Today, the Miami Beach Architectural District includes more than 800 art-deco buildings. All the buildings are located in an area of no more than 2.6 sq km. It is also the site of the largest accumulation of art déco buildings in the world, making the district, a kind of open-air museum of this style. The pastel colours of the buildings create a unique urban atmosphere, full of exoticism, relaxation and hope for a better future.
Source: AFAR
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