Miami Beach is much more than a tropical paradise and a popular tourist destination, it is rich with history, culture, and some of the most amazing and unique architecture in the world. Art Deco is the most prevalent and recognizable style of architecture in Miami Beach. Art Deco is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The Miami Beach Art Deco District contains the largest concentration of Deco resort architecture in the world, with some thirty blocks of vibrantly colored hotels and apartment houses dating from the 1920s to the 1940s. These buildings represent an era when Miami was heavily promoted and developed as a "tropical playground."
Art Deco is considered one of the first twentieth century architectural styles in America to break with traditional revival forms to embrace influences from many different styles including Neoclassical, Constructivism, Cubism, Modernism and Futurism. Building forms in the style were typically angular and clean, with stepped back facades, symmetrical or asymmetrical massing and strong vertical accenting. The preferred decorative language included geometric patterns, abstracted natural forms, modern industrial symbols and ancient cultural motifs employing Mayan, Egyptian and Indigenous American themes.
In Ocean Beach (now known as South Beach) architects used a unique form of local imagery to create what we now call "Tropical Deco". The style employed nautical themes as well as tropical floral and fauna motifs. Ocean liners, palm trees, and flamingos graced the exteriors and interiors of the new local architecture. The favored materials for executing this distinctive "art" decor included bas-relief stucco, keystone, etched glass, a variety of metals, cast concrete, patterned terrazzo, and others.
Much of the Art Deco designs can be attributed to architect Morris Lapidus. His first large commission was the Miami Beach Sans Souci Hotel, followed closely by the Nautilus, the Di Lido, the Biltmore Terrace, and the Algiers, all along Collins Avenue, and amounting to the single-handed redesign of an entire district. The hotels were an immediate popular success. Then in 1952 he landed the job of the largest luxury hotel in Miami Beach, the Fontainebleau Hotel, one of the most historically and architecturally significant hotels on Miami Beach and thought to be the most significant building of Lapidus's career. Before the Fontainebleau's 27 colors of paint had dried, Lapidus had his second big commission, the Eden Rock, a luxury hotel to be located right next door. Around 1960, Lapidus was commissioned to redesign Lincoln Road. Lapidus's design for Lincoln Road, complete with gardens, fountains, shelters and an amphitheater, reflected the Miami Modern Architecture, or "MiMo", style that Lapidus pioneered in the 1950s. The Road was closed to traffic and became one of the nation's first pedestrian malls.
Art Deco continues to be a popular style among buyers coming to the South Beach market. I have sold more art deco properties than I can count and I enjoy discovering the unique attributes to each Art Deco property...no two being the same. I recently closed a sale at Harriet Court on 1508 Pennsylvania Avenue for $385,000. Harriet Court, like many Art Deco properties, has been completely renovated and elegantly blends the past with the present, encompassing all of today's modern design features and amenities.
0 comments:
Post a Comment