Art Deco Miami Tour - Art Scenes

MIAMI

Art Deco

In the 1910s a bridge got built between Miami and Miami Beach allowing the construction of houses and hotels by the beach; and by the 1930s it became a cool touristic resort town for the old elite, new Hollywood celebrities and latter on WWII soldiers — and thanks to the conservation of some public buildings and hotels you can travel in time to the art deco days Miami Beach.

Time period: 1910s-1940s

Movie/book: The Birdcage (1995)/

Soundtrack: Tony Bennett/Bossanova music

Fashion: pink and blue outfit, polo shirt plus a Panama hat (and suspenders)

Budget:

Sauer and Seghy (published by A.C. Douglas Printing Co.): Map of the City of Miami and Environs, 1925

This walking tour would take you to the streets of South Beach: the touristy neighborhood rebuilt after the Big Blow Hurricane in 1926; and where thousands of Jews retired after WWII until it became a party town in 80s. The area is characterized by: Art Deco architecture, the beach with its iconic lifeguards towers and overpriced restaurants/bars. The town was created by the Lummus Brothers in 1912 when they bought the swampy land from John Collins and together convinced Carl Fisher to fund the Venetian Causeway; starting the development of the “resort beach town” of South Beach Miami with polo clubs and grand hotels. Nonetheless the wood structures of the resort town got destroyed in the hurricane “Big Blow” including the bridge; but the magic didn’t stop and South Beach went through a construction boom (Ocean Drive got filled with little hotels, Washington Ave with public buildings, and Lincoln Road with commercial businesses) embracing the Art Deco movement during the 30s. This style is characterized by: bold geometric shapes, emphasis on verticality, and neon lights. Two key players in the transition of South Beach from an exclusive enclave to a popular touristic destination were the architects Henry Hohauser (who became known for his nautical aesthetic like in the Essex House, Hoffman’s Cafeteria or the Colony Hotel) and L. Murray Dixon (known for his curvilinear designs with “eyebrows” like in The Victor Hotel, The Tiffany Hotel or The Ritz Plaza Hotel) — both of them designed around 20 hotels in the neighborhood. Then during World War II these little hotels were converted into barracks while South Beach into a military training camp; and after the war it got advertised as a retirement Jewish heaven getting the nickname “Gods Waiting Room”. The quiet jewish days were over when the cocaine cowboys started smuggling drugs through the Biscayne Bay in the 80s; along side the revival of the tourist industry after the neighborhood got listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 (thanks to Barbara Baer Capitman). The area was gonna get demolish to allow the construction of bigger hotels and condominiums but instead it got restored and painted in pastel candy colors. The gay interior designer Leonard Horowitz devised a palette of tones (purples, greens, oranges, blues and yellows) to draw attention to the architectural details. The neon lights were back on (lines got snored) and the forgotten resort town of South Beach Miami got popular again but now as a party town. The tour suggest chilling in the beach plus a museum in the morning; lunch at a historical diner, a drink at the Versace Mansion plus an Art Deco walking tour in the afternoon; and to end the day, shopping in Lincoln Road plus dinner at La Espagniola Way.