Can a building take you to the most glamorous years? Of course! As an example we take the Hotel Leslie, icon of Art Deco in Miami. It’s yellow, like something out of an old movie. Its façade is full of geometric figures and when seeing it, the visitor feels like in another era.

It is located in the Art Deco district, which has similar constructions as those of the hotel. In fact, Miami is the city in the world that preserves the most buildings of this style in its streets, (Caballero, 2019).

In this article we invite you to delve into that architecture that fuses the tropical climate and what in the past was understood by futurism.

Get to know the Art Deco district in Miami

Located on the southern tip of South Beach, Miami’s Art Deco district is likely to be one of the city’s most film-like locations. There are many examples.

To cite one, you may remember the scene of the strange hair gel that Cameron Diaz smears on himself in the movie There’s Subjecting About Mary (in some countries they translated it Crazy about Mary). It was recorded at the well-known Hotel Cardozo, which is also in this district.

These buildings were built starting in the 1930s, after the Great Depression. This art scene boomed because the Americans looked for an architecture that would help lift the spirits of the population and in Art Deco they found the solution.

For this reason, in the city began to build colorful buildings and representative of this current, but with some differences to the original. Straight lines and geometric figures blended with palm trees and neon lights. This is how a unique label was created (Caballero, 2019). Did you know that this district is one of the most important in the city along with the Miami Design District and Little Havana?

Art Deco in Miami and the world: what does this architecture consist of?

To get to know the Art Deco district in Miami you have to walk along Ocean Drive. You can hire a guide or simply let yourself be carried away by aesthetic taste (Civitatis Miami, n.d.).

The obligatory stops on Ocean Drive are:

  • Park Central Hotel (630, Ocean Drive).
  • Colony Hotel (736, Ocean Drive).
  • Waldorf Towers Hotel (860, Ocean Drive).
  • Breakwater Hotel (940, Ocean Drive).
  • Edison Hotel (960, Ocean Drive).
  • Art Deco District Welcome Center (1001, Ocean Drive).
  • Victor Hotel (1144, Ocean Drive).
  • Leslie Hotel (1244, Ocean Drive).
  • Carlyle (1250, Ocean Drive).
  • Crescent Hotel (1400, Ocean Drive).
  • Mc Alpin Hotel (1424, Ocean Drive).

On Collins Avenue you will discover the following architectural gems:

  • Haddon Hall (1500, Collins Avenue).
  • Essex House (1001, Collins Avenue).
  • The Hotel (801, Collins Avenue).

Finally, the mandatory stops on Washington Avenue are:

  • Miami Beach Mail Post Office (1300, Washington Avenue).
  • Astor Hotel (956, Washington Avenue).

Without a doubt, touring the Art Deco district in Miami is a pleasant activity for both architecture lovers and the curious. It is full of glamour, history and cinematic references. If you want to know more, you should attend the Art Deco Weekend. It is a weekend where the district relives the splendor of the 20s (Agress, 2019). By the way, if you want to go to this event, do not forget to wear your best clothes and enlist your most striking swing steps. A journey into a fascinating past awaits you.

References

Agress, J. (November 20, 2019). Art Deco Weekend. Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. Recuperado de https://www.miamiandbeaches.lat/event/art-deco-weekend/95#:~:text=Art%20Deco%20Weekend%20re%C3%BAne%20a,m%C3%A1s%20conocido%20por%20Arte%20deco%20.

Caballero, M. (January 28, 2019). Art Deco, the history of architecture with geometric figures and pastel colors. Collective Culture. Retrieved from https://culturacolectiva.com/arte/historia-de-art-deco-miami

Civitatis Miami. (undated). Miami Art Deco District. Civitatis Miami. Retrieved from https://www.disfrutamiami.com/distrito-art-deco

De la Cuesta, D. (July 25, 2012). Walk through a Miami from a movie. El País. Retrieved from https://elviajero.elpais.com/elviajero/2012/07/25/actualidad/1343229001_073275.html

Fernández, R. (undated). The History Behind Room Mate Waldorf Towers: A unique architectural Project. Room Mate World. Retrieved from https://room-matehotels.com/en/blog/history-behind-room-mate-waldorf-towers/

Remón, R. (August 10, 2017). Hotel Leslie 1937. Art Deco Architect from Miami Beach. Architecture and Business. Retrieved from https://www.arquitecturayempresa.es/noticia/hotel-leslie-1937-arquitectura-art-deco-de-miami-beach

Sierna, R. (June 14, 2019). Art Deco: Explore this dazzling current of modern art. My Modern Met in Spanish. Retrieved from https://mymodernmet.com/es/que-es-art-deco-definicion/