South Beach Architecture

              Wet Willies, Ocean Dr.

                    South Beach, FL

The roaring 20’s was a time in American History that found wealthy families just looking for ways to spend their money. Many of these very wealthy families choose to spend some of their fortune in South Beach. It was a generation that was embracing technology....the telephone, the telegraph and travel made easier with railroads and fledgling possibility of flight! It was a heady time and the architecture of the period reflects the attitudes of the multitudes. This has always been true but never has it been more evident than in the architecture of South Beach of the 1920’s.

South Beach was originally farm land. It’s hard to believe now when you see South Beach as it is today but there was a time when only coconut trees could be found on the landscape. Development of the South Beach area didn’t actually begin until about 1912 when Miami businessmen the Lummus Brothers acquired 400 acres and started building an oceanfront city of modest single family residences.

There was some development of course but real development didn’t seriously begin until about 1915 when the causeway was completed and it didn’t really get into full swing until about 1920 when the land boom began when several millionaires moved into the area. J. C. Penny, Harvey Firestone, Harvey Stutz, Albert Champion, Frank Seiberling and Rockwell LeGorce all built homes on Miami Beach.

By the 1930’s the architectural revolution was in full swing and Art Deco, Streamline Modern, and Nautical Modern architecture structures began to pop up. 

There are actually two periods of Art Deco architecture in South Beach. The first period covers buildings constructed between 1926 and1938 and the second period covers those buildings that were constructed after 1938 and through the 1940’s. The earlier period buildings have sharp, angular forms but the later ones are a little more modest in design and not nearly as ornamental. But both periods are important and all are located in what is called the historic Art Deco district.

Streamline Modern (or Moderne) and Nautical Modern are sometimes referred to as a separate architectural styles and sometimes as simply a continuation of the Art Deco style. Streamline Modern were the first buildings that incorporated electric lighting into the architectural design. These buildings feature curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements like railings and windows that look like portholes.

These grand old buildings fell into a sad state of disrepair and were located in an area that was at that time riddled with crime and poverty. Many of the building had been torn down or remodeled. Barbara Baer Capitman formed the Miami Design Preservation League (MDPL) in 1976 and set about the mountainous project of saving and restoring these old buildings. Of the 800 buildings that were originally slated for restoration, 755 have been completed. It has been a long an uphill battle and one fraught with difficulties but the task is nearly complete today. It took some time for the private sector to recognize the value of restoration as opposed to tearing down and rebuilding.