Miami is… well, South Beach is a sight by night.
My mom and I took a walking night tour of the Art Deco district. In about one square mile, hundreds of Art Deco buildings provide glamour, colour, and enticement. The difference is literally night and day, with bright neon pastel lights giving the architecture a whole new look. It’s also got quite a vibrant nightlife.
Only 100 years before, it was a swamp and mangrove wetland, a far cry from the ludicrously built-up destination of today. It was first called “Miami Beach” by automobile industry entrepreneur Carl Fisher, who found this area in 1910 and proceeded to build it up. Residential islands were created by draining Biscayne Bay. This, he helped finance. Hotels like Flamingo Hotel – also Carl Fisher.
Art Deco
Art Deco harkens back to 1910s Paris, where it began, reaching its heights in the 1920s and 1930s around the world. Arts décoratifs, as it was called, was a style in architecture, design, and visual arts. A synthesis of geometric forms of Cubism, Fauvism’s bright colours, and the styles from far-flung countries that brought an exotic and oriental flavour. Art Deco was glamour, modernism, and luxury. The “Roaring 20s”.
Examples of Art Deco include
- The Empire State Building (New York)
- The Chrysler Building (New York)
- American Radiator Building (New York)
- Rockefeller Centre (New York)
- Helsinki Central Station (Helsinki)
- Niagara Mohawk Building (Syracruse)
- Eastern Columbia Building (Los Angeles)
- Luhrs Building (Phoenix)
- Folies Bergère (Paris)
- Palais de Tokyo, Palais du Chaillot, Palais de la Porte Dorée, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (Paris, north of the Eiffel Tower)
- Piscine Pailleron, Piscine des Amiraux, and Piscine Pontoise (Paris)
You see towering and symmetrical designs with long lines, bold geometric patterns, repeating motifs, and usage of metals such as gold and chrome. It’s quite distinguishing and you recognize Art Deco when you see it.
South Beach Miami
The Art Deco District of South Beach is between 5th and 23rd Streets, along the iconic Ocean Drive, as well as Collins and Washington Avenues. Start at the Art Deco Welcome Centre and/or the Art Deco Museum, located in Lummus Park at 1001 Ocean Drive. There are more than 800 Art Deco buildings in this area. Thanks to the revitalization movement that began in the 1980s, we still have these wonderful examples of Art Deco.
Miami Design Preservation League – annual Art Deco Weekend festival, since 1977
Some notables:
- most photographed Art Deco hotel, Colony Hotel
- The Carlyle Hotel was the club in The Birdcage
- Tony Montana (Al Pacino) in Scarface walking down Ocean Drive in his signature white suit
- also in the area, though not Art Deco is the late Gianni Versace’s house, Casa Casuarina, also known as the Versace House. He was murdered outside this home in 1997.
- Ocean Drive was the backdrop for music videos like Madonna’s “Vogue”
- Collins Avenue was added in 1986, allowing owners tax benefits for renovating and preserving their properties to historic standards
Art Deco District Sights
Tides
Located at 1220 Ocean Drive and across from the beach, The Tides is one of the hotels we ventured inside. Built in 1936 by architect L. Murray Dixon and renovated in 2006-2008 by Kelly Wearstler, the lobby is a wonderful place to visit. Following the rule of threes, this 10-storey building has portal windows, a shape that has been echoed in its interior detailing. The floor is original and the lobby decor beautiful gold-leaf screens.
In contrast to the softer beiges in the rest of the lobby, the bar is styled with deep brown leather chairs. The walls and the bar are the same dark brown, with a beautiful mural of gold-leaf fish.
“Reminiscent of a 1940s Italian luxury liner, the lobby’s Coral Bar features a 22-carat, gold-leaf mural of sea creatures and a shagreen-topped bar. The stunning interior of La Marea restaurant boasts a wall of vintage faux tortoise shells, metallic palm trees and hooded bergère chairs in deep coffee-colored leather, striking a perfect balance between the elegant and the organic.” – Kelly Wearstler
11th Street Diner
The Art Deco dining car that is now 11th Street Diner at 1065 Washington Avenue started out as a diner in Pennsylvania. Built and opened in 1948, it was moved to South Beach after 44 years in Wilkes Barre. After the completion of restoration work, 11th Street Diner opened its doors in the Art Deco District in 1992. The diner was a bright spot on the night tour, its shiny exterior enticing to the lens.
Other Art Deco Examples in South Beach
1926
The Colony Hotel
736 Ocean Drive
- designed by architect Henry Hohauser (1895-1963)
- named The Colony in mid-1930s
- family-run
- renovated in 2008
1937
Hotel Victor
1144 Ocean Drive
- designed by architect L. Murray Dixon (1901 –1949); others by him include The Tides Hotel (1936), The Marlin Hotel (1939), The Raleigh (1940), and The Betsy (1942).
- next to the Versace mansion (also owned by owners of Hotel Victor)
1937
Leslie
1244 Ocean Drive
- originally named St Moritz
- designed by Albert Anis (1889 – 1964) who was also the architect for The Winterhaven Hotel (1937), The Clevelander (1939), Avalon (1941), and many others
- one of the first luxury hotels in South Beach and served as a military hospital during the war
- Maritime deco or Nautical Moderne, with pothole windows and a neon tower with its name
- restoration and renovation in 2014
1938
Essex
1001 Collins Avenue
- originally named St Moritz
- designed by Albert Anis (1889 – 1964), known for Art Deco architecture
- designed by architect Henry Hohauser (1895-1963)
- one of the first luxury hotels in South Beach and served as a military hospital during the war
- Maritime deco or Nautical Moderne, with pothole windows and a neon tower with its name
- restoration and renovation in 2014; still has its original terrazzo fireplace by Earl LaPan
1939
Cardozo Hotel
940 Ocean Drive
- designed by Henry Hohauser
- purchased by a group of investors that included Andrew Capitman, which had a vision of growth through revival of the 1930s and preservation of the Art Deco architecture
- in movies such as Something About Mary and Any Given Sunday
Andrew Capitman wrote in The Atlantic Journal (1979):
The fundamental business concept behind the Cardozo Hotel, and the Art Deco District, is a great demand for vacations which allow people to recapture the magical simplicity and romance which are nostalgically associated with Miami Beach in the 1930’s. People can stay at a cold, modern Hyatt or Hilton, complete with thirty-story internal atrium, in virtually every major city in the United States. Only in the Art Deco District can they be transported back to the days of F. Scott Fitzgerald, the Great Gatsby, The Big Bands, Busby Berkeley lavish film sets.
Forty years ago, the Cardozo Hotel was elegant, casual, spotlessly clean and shining. A small combo would play dance music on the Tropical Dance Patio and vacationers in stylish resort wear from the fashionable shops on Lincoln Road would lounge on the front porch luxuriating in the sunset before an evening of jazz and big band music at the hotels and night clubs. The Cardozo Hotel was the kind of place where people fall in love.
Andrew Capitman, pioneer in Art Deco revitalization in South Beach
1939
Hotel Breakwater
940 Ocean Drive
- designed by Anton Skislewicz (1895-1980)
- symmetrical with imposing central vertical element, the entrance and the neon hotel signage
1940
Raleigh
1775 Collins Avenue
- Life Magazine named Raleigh Hotel’s pool “the most beautiful pool in America” in 1947. I made it a point to visit it in the daytime. It’s got a unique curvy shape, in a Baroque style.
- The hotel pool is where competitive swimmer and actress Esther Williams (1921 – 2013) filmed her mermaid photos in the 1950s
- another hotel designed by architect L Murray Dixon
1941
Carylye
1250 Ocean Drive
- designed by Richard Kiehnel (1870–1944)
- seen in movies such as The Birdcage and Scarface.
- displays sun visors or Tropical Deco “eyebrows”, which are extend over the windows for shade
- understated; original colours were sea foam green and white
1942
The Betsy
1440 Ocean Drive
- Life magazine named the hotel pool as the “most beautiful pool in America” (I made it a point to visit it in the day. It has a unique curvy shape.)
- originally named The Betty Ross, before opening as a hotel as designed, it was first a military base during the war
