Miami Modern Architecture on the Beach 1945 - 1965

Prepared by the City of Beach Planning Department Graphic design by Matt Tumbleson, City of Miami Beach Office of Communications Thanks to The Urban Arts Committee of Miami Beach for photographs from the exhibition “Beyond the Box, Mid-Century Modern Architecture in Miami and New York” Evolution Architecture Vernacular of Architecturnaivetè andspontaneitynotfoundinmoreacademicgraphicexpressions. is created training, by and art people it without art shows formal a degree of reflects the fact that its builder is not a trained architect. In the same way, folk usually it manner,so expedient an in shelter for need the resolve to is intent newly founded settlements. It is owner-built, rustic and intuitive in in character. Its appear to architecture of style first the usually is architecture Vernacular al Style successful inevokingemotionalresponses. recognizablearetheythatway depicted arespecially asucharethey andin impressionistsubjectslandscapes.of andpeoplepaintingssubjectsThese are painters seek to create a feeling of romance by their brush stroke techniques. The nostalgiaby recreating a romantic “Old Europe” setting. Similarly, Impressionist be reached by train. As such, its intention was to evoke an and emotional developers could that resort European” “Southern the as South market to speculators land response by of effort conscious a of part was It 1920s. and 1910s the in beginning Florida South in used was architecture revival Mediterranean Architecture Revi Mediterranean al begins to shift its focus to pure symmetry andorder.begins toshiftitsfocuspuresymmetry Deco Art reference, historical of sense a maintains architecture earlier while Similarly, itself. painting of act the in interest increased an and world outer a more pronounced role. There is less interest in merely reproducing the artist’s but they are suggested rather than stated. Color and geometry begin to take on recognizable, clearly still are matters subject The stylized. more forms its and abstract more be to began Painting architecture. did so evolved painting As Architecture Art Deco ART DECO (late 1920s to early 1930s) The evolution of 20th century ‘modern’ architecture in Miami Beach begins with the Art Deco style. Art Deco had its origins in Europe, and particularly France, in the mid-1920s. Its primary form in Miami Beach is a vertical oriented rectangle which is divided into three parts, both horizontally and vertically.

Its porch and pedestal comprise a clear base. The building is symmetric, and most have a strong vertical element to emphasize the axis of symmetry. The interior circulation is also symmetric and axial. It consists of a double loaded corridor, in other words, a central hallway with rooms on both sides. Concrete “eyebrows” projecting above the windows provide shade from the tropical sun. Art Deco architecture is very playful, but it is firmly anchored by its strong central axis.

STREAMLINE (mid 1930s to early 1940s) As time goes on architects begin to get more playful with the vocabulary of Art Deco architecture. Eyebrows become a stronger horizontal element by uniting across the façade and racing around the corner to the side facades. Windows move to the outer edges of the façade and even wrap around the corners, flaunting new structural systems that eliminated the need for corner supports.

The axis of the building often begins to shift away from the center, stretching every other element on the façade. It often reaches the corner where it becomes a vertical beacon emphasizing street intersections. The architecture is all about motion and speed. Nautical themes recalling great oceanliners are also common.

MIMO (late 1940s to mid 1960s) After World War II, architects, influenced by the international modern movement, began to play with form and geometry. Horizontal proportions became even more pronounced, often exhibiting a flat roof with broad overhanging eaves, echoed by the horizontal projections of the catwalks or balconies and anchored to the ground with long low planter boxes. Eyebrows evolved into window boxes and windows were grouped together with bands of contrasting texture and color to create bold patterns, The axis of symmetry often shifted to the outside of the building where two identical buildings form a mirror image of one another facing a central courtyard.

Like their Art Deco predecessors, the earliest post-war modern buildings were built with interior circulation. Entrance to apartments is gained through interior corridors and staircases. Later MiMo buildings incorporated exterior circulation with entry via outdoor corridors and open-air staircases. These exterior staircases are often symmetrical and are significant design features. REFLECTIONS OF Miami Modern Architecture was a popular response to the various ART IN ARCHITECTURE modernist and post world war art and architectural movements that were taking place in other parts of the world, adding glamour, fun, and material excess to otherwise stark, minimalist, and efficient styles.

Late Modern painters were willing to explore pure geometry with paint and color. This abstract artistic style, which expressed a new utopian ideal of spiritual harmony and order, is reflected in the forms and geometry of MiMo architecture. Artists, such as Piet Mondrian, advocated pure abstraction and universality by a reduction to the essentials of form and color; they simplified visual compositions to the vertical and horizontal directions, and used primary colors along with black and white.

Influenced by these modern artistic movements, architects designed MiMo buildings with an emphasis of horizontal and vertical lines and often created ornament using the structure and theme of the building, such as the projecting eaves and bean pole columns. SOCIAL/POPULAR CULTURE before seen in South Florida. before seeninSouth Florida. Development during this time was on a and scale never hotels residential resort resort architecture new were contemplated. major when WWII in success American the followed development Unprecedented brides. their with often home, their make to or vacation to here returned Beach Miami in recruits as trained had who veterans Forces during World War II. After the war, many site and redistribution center for the U.S. Army-Air Miami Beach played a significant role as a training ENTER orothy Dandridge Dorothy Montgomery Clift Montgomery Debbie R Jayne Mansfield Jayne Audrey Hepburn Marilyn Monroe Marilyn William Frawley Charlton Heston Charlton William Holden Marlon Brando Marlon George R George Johnny Carson Jerry Mathers Jerry Paul N Peter Cushing Troy Donahue John Gregson Gregory Peck Gregory Tony Hancock Steve R Kirk Douglas Kirk Sophia Loren R Vivian VanceVivian Ava Gardner Van Johnson Dean Martin Hayley Mills James Dean Yul Brynner Jon Provost Sandra Dee Sandra ock Hudson ock Jerry Grace KellyGrace Jack Benny Jack Tony Curtis Diana ors Kim N Lucille Ball Lucille Jack Webb Jack Sal Mineo Bob Hope Clay Cole Clay eynolds ewman eeves eeves ovak T AINER OF THEERA S Less than ten years after the close of World War II, Miami Beach and the nation were re-tooled and geared-up for an even brighter future. National defense plants that a decade earlier had been manufacturing the high tech implements of war were now producing glamorous two tone “Fleetwood” Cadillacs with electric windows and leather seats. “Rocket” Oldsmobiles with V-8 engines, automatic transmissions, and hood ornaments almost predicting a lunar landing barely another decade later, streaked down new US highways. And affordable as well as highly reliable, “Bel-Aire” Chevrolets, began to explore the vast reaches of the American nation. On gleaming new Magnavox TV sets, Dinah Shore beckoned her fellow Americans relaxing in their living rooms to, “See the USA in Your Chevrolet”. This promotion of mid-century American values became possibly one of the most effective advertising jingles in modern American history. America was calling.

The first Sputnik was launched in 1957. Rivalry with the U.S.S.R. led to the space race. Futuristic, flamboyant, fun design elements showed up in cars, furniture, and buildings. Automobiles sprouted wings and depicted rocket motifs. The small globe with protruding antennae reminiscent of the Sputnik became a common design detail. Cheese holes, woggles and boomerangs began to appear in Miami Beach’s architecture. Perhaps, nowhere else in the City is the influence of the ‘Space Age’ more highly developed than within the stretch of between 44th Street and 73rd Street, where complete buildings are rounded and radically cantilevered balconies are scientifically engineered. 87TH TER

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DISTRICTS SHEFFIELD LN North Beach 65TH ST Miami Beach’s northern neighborhood, known as North Beach, has one of the largest and most cohesive concentrations of MiMo buildings in South Florida. The two districts BREVITY LN Resort ALLISON RD Historic District that were recently honored with listing on the National Register of Historic Places are made up of over 800 small apartment buildings, hotels and neighborhood commercial LA GORCE CIR buildings. Unlike the luxury oceanfront hotels located nearby, the North Shore and Normandy Isles districts developed out of a need for modest housing for the burgeoning PINE TREE DR CIR

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W 60TH ST W 59TH ST The North Beach Resort Historic District W 59TH ST W 58TH ST The North Beach Resort Historic District is located along Collins Avenue between approximately 63 and 71 Streets. After World War II, this area developed into a major W 58TH ST

W 57TH ST tourist and entertainment attraction with large, luxurious resort hotels fronting the Atlantic Ocean. These resort hotels usually featured grand lobbies, cocktail lounges, supper W 57TH ST

clubs, a variety of thematic restaurants, ballrooms, banquet halls, meeting rooms, retail shops, enormous swimming pools, extensive sundecks, solariums, and a sweeping W 56TH ST W 56TH ST array of highly popular private beach cabanas. These grand hotels, which include the Deauville, Carillon, Casablanca, Sherry Frontenac, and the former Monte Carlo, define W 54TH ST

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W 48TH ST The Morris Lapidus / Mid 20th Century Historic District is situated within a one-mile long stretch of Collins Avenue between 44 Street and the 5300 block. Twelve of the N BAY RD LAKEVIEW DR

fourteen properties located here contain architecturally significant mid-20th century structures, all built between 1954 and 1966. A remarkable five of these are among the W 47TH CT W 47TH ST

most distinctive, grand, and architecturally dramatic mid-century structures designed by internationally acclaimed Miami Beach architect, Morris Lapidus. This extraordinary W 46TH ST W 46TH ST W 46TH ST Morris Lapidus/

NAUTILUS CT collection of Lapidus masterpieces, together with seven mid-century structures designed by other highly respected and successful South Florida architects, embodies the fullW 45TH ST Mid 20th Century

N JEFFERSONAVE Historic District POSTAVE aesthetic, social, economic and historic impact that this one single mile stretch would have on the evolution of “Miami Modern” design, and indeed the future of post war W 45TH ST

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Historic Districts and Sites MIAMIBEACH Prepared by the Planning Department, Updated November 10, 2009 North ShorE NATIONAL REGISTER DISTRICT NORMANDY ISLES NATIONAL REGISTER DISTRICT The North Beach Resort Historic District MORRIS LAPIDUS/ MID 20th CENTURY HISTORIC DISTRICT Landmark MiMo Buildings of Greater Miami Bacardi Building (Enrique Gutierrez, 1963) - 2100 Biscayne Boulevard Carillon Hotel (Norman Giller, 1957) - 6801 Collins Avenue Crystal House (Morris Lapidus, 1960) - 5055 Collins Avenue Deauville Hotel (Melvin Grossman, 1958) - 6701 Collins Avenue Eden Roc Hotel (Morris Lapidus, 1955) - 4525 Collins Avenue Fontainebleau Hotel (Morris Lapidus, 1954) - 4441 Collins Avenue International Inn (Melvin Grossman, 1956) - 2301 Normandy Drive Jackie Gleason House (Lester Avery, 1959) – 2232 Alton Road Lido Spa Hotel (Morris Lapidus, 1953) - 40 Island Avenue Mall (Morris Lapidus, 1960) Miami Herald (Naess & Murphy, 1960) – One Herald Plaza Miami Marine Stadium (Hilario Candela, 1964) - 3501 Rickenbacker Cswy Pepsi-Cola Bottling Pavilion (Daverman & As., 1965) -7777 NW 41st Street Shalimar Motel (Edwin Reeder, 1950) - 6200 Biscayne Boulevard Sherry Frontenac Hotel (Henry Hohauser, 1947) - 6565 Collins Avenue Simbad Motel (1953) - 6150 Biscayne Boulevard South Pacific Motel (1953) - 6300 Biscayne Boulevard Regions Bank (Francis Hoffman, 1958) – 1133 Normandy Drive Vagabond Motel (Robert Swartburg, 1953) - 7301 Biscayne Boulevard

DETAILS OF MiMo ARCHITECTURE

Prosceniums Prosceniums are a design feature that visually connects two small structures so they read and function as a single, grander structure with an enclosed garden/courtyard. Many prosceniums employ open grillwork known as brie solei, block work or open gables. DECORATIVE BLOCK WALLS

Decorative concrete blocks serve many purposes.

They are structurally sound and let light and air pass through. They are used as walls, railings, fences and many decorative architectural features. The common name is breeze block.

Exterior surface materials MiMo buildings generally combine stucco walls with a contrasting material

Stucco patterns Brick and slumped brick Natural stone Mosaic tile IRONWORK MiMo buildings, with their exterior circulation, have a vast variety of ironwork styles. Most railings at that time were selected from catalogs by the architect or building owner. Iron and aluminum craftsman designed many of the styles. Railings help to generate the character of a building. In some cases the railings are the most important surviving architectural feature of interest. STEEL PIPE COLUMNS Morris Lapidus called them “Beanpoles.” The use of steel pipe columns reflected a renewed sense of honesty in architecture, perhaps a sense of humor as well. These futuristic steel pole groups varied. Funnel configurations, angled, and vertical groupings are commonly seen. EAVES MiMo buildings often had flat roofs with projecting eaves. The distinctive curved underside of many eaves are locally known as “soft” eaves. Shallow hip or gable tile roofs were also used. They had projecting eaves as well.

Courtyards MiMo apartment buildings were built in a variety of

simple, rectangular shapes. The most common are

single and double-bar buildings, but some buildings

are designed in more elaborate shapes. A very strong

pattern developed. The street façade often has no

entrance, but is highly decorated. A courtyard is formed where the “main” facades of two buildings face each other. A service court is formed where the “back”

facades face each other. FUN MiMo buildings were often designed in a playful and futuristic manner. This playful use of angles and lines embody the optimism of post-war America. Buildings were designed with vertical and horizontal projections, fins, boomerangs, wobbles and cheese holes. Eccentric themes were sometimes added to this post-war modern architectural vocabulary. Applied masonry elements often had marine or nautical themes.

PROJECTED Art deco eyebrows evolved MASONRY into projected masonry WINDOW window frames. These FRAMES frames often were filled with stone, brick, or ribbed relief work.

Photo Credits: Robin Hill, Arthur Marcus, Thomas Delbeck, City of Miami Beach Planning Department