Take Your Pick, Architectural Junkies...Miami's Got It All.

Miami is all about design, fabulous architecture, glamour and glitz. The greater Miami area lives ands breathes art ranking amongst the top four contemporary art centers in the U.S. Art Basel, an annual extravaganza has put Miami in the forefront of the international art scene. Take your pick, as an architectural smorgasbord Miami has it all; Art Deco, Mediterranean Revival, ’50s Modernism, and ’70’s leftover schlock.

Sleek streamlined sky scrappers along Brickell Avenue, Pastel colored Art Deco hotels line Ocean Drive, and MiMo, Miami’s newest edition has emerged as a transformed edgy neighborhood with an attitude. Then there’s the hot Design District just north of downtown that’s thriving with design studios, trendy bistros, galleries, antique shops, and showrooms. Put on your comfortable shoes and plan on spending about four days to get your fill of Miami’s eye candy.

Sizzling South Beach
For a comprehensive overview of South Beach, take a walking tour offered by the Miami Preservation League. Skip over to Ocean Drive and marvel at the well-preserved pastel-colored Art Deco hotels. Study the unique architectural details including terrazzo floors, eyebrows, and sleek lines with a futuristic influence. Versace’s Mediterranean Revival palazzo is a popular spot for a Kodak moment.

Lincoln Road is another hot spot for fabulous Deco architecture gracing the storefronts of the chic cafés, designer boutiques, and art galleries. Check out these gems: the Sterling Building, Colony Theatre, Van Dyke, and the stylized banana leaves accenting the 1936 Lincoln Theatre. Head down a few doors and watch artists working in their studios at the Art Center of South Florida.

Swing down Washington Avenue and detour onto Espanola way; surrounded by pink stucco buildings, balconies, arches, and columns, you’ll swear you’ve arrived on the Italian Rivera.

Biltmore Hotel
The Biltmore Hotel, a National Historic Landmark is the grand dame of Coral Gables with its pink tiered tower inspired by Seville’s Giralda tower. The elegant Biltmore exudes Old World charm and is saturated with lavish architectural details including hand-painted tiles, mahogany aviaries, voluminous cobalt blue vaulted ceilings, ornately painted wooden beams, and an exotic mish mash of Moorish and Mediterranean motifs accent the grand lobby.

Originally slated to be demolished in the 1970’s, a group of determined preservationists rescued the landmark Biltmore from the wrecking ball providing another incarnation for this majestic hotel to be restored to its former grandeur. As a National Historic Landmark, the Biltmore has a rich and colorful past and has undergone several reincarnations including serving as a military hospital during WW II and the original site of the University of Miami Medical School. In its early days, the Biltmore was a glamorous place with celebs like Esther Williams and Johnny Weissmuller as regulars. In his pre-Tarzan days, Weissmuller was a swimming instructor at the legendary pool. 

With 700,000 gallons of water, the pool is the largest hotel pool in the country resembling a mini-lake with a dramatic waterfall and Greek statues gracing the loggia. The pool was the center of social life in the 1920s and ’30s with frequent aquatic events and competitions, beauty pageants, and galas; it was the place to see and be seen. 

Lots of famous folks have stayed here through the years and recent guests have included former President Bill Clinton and presidential wanna-be John McCain during the last presidential campaign. President Clinton loves the Biltmore’s golf course and when he’s in town likes staying in the exclusive two-story Everglades Suite with a private elevator, going up to the tower. The two-story suite is well-appointed with a dramatic fireplace, Oriental carpets, and hand-painted ceiling frescoes depicting pelicans and flamingos and scenes from the Everglades.

Venetian Pool
Created in 1923 from a rock quarry used to build the homes and roads of Coral Gables by city founder George Merrick, the Venetian Pool, is the only swimming pool to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places and rightfully so. This stunning architectural wonder is such a well-kept secret that some of the locals don’t even know about it.

The Venetian Pool’s Mediterranean revival style is a delightful paradise in the midst of a suburban oasis with palm trees, loggias, grottos, caves, waterfalls, islands, and a special bridge bringing magic to the pools. While a romantic spot for adults, kids love to swim and hide in the grottos (but they have to be over age 3). The pool holds 820,000 gallons of spring water coming from an underground aquifer; every summer evening the pool is drained and refilled overnight.

Vizcaya
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, the palatial winter residence built in 1916 by John Deering of the International Harvester fortune, is the ultimate showplace of lavish excess. Vizcaya is a classic example of Mediterranean Revival with tiled roofs, exquisite formal Italian gardens, and superb decorative arts. Thirty-four rooms are filled with priceless treasures spanning 2,000 years. Take a tour with a well-trained docent and see one spectacular room after another filled with breathtaking European and Asian antiques; each room is influenced by a different theme including the Cathay Bedroom, the Adams Library, and Deering’s Napoleon Bedroom. The formal manicured Italian and French Renaissance gardens are heavily accented with statuary, fountains, coral grottos, sphinxes, griffins. The drippy grottos are gorgeous with their shell-encrusted mosaic ceilings and gargoyles.

Mr. Deering and his interior designer Paul Chalfin made frequent trips abroad to purchase furniture and decorative arts sparing no expense. Marble floors, hand-painted murals, fine sets of china, and a 16th century inlaid marble table from the Medici workshop adorn this Palazzo on Biscayne Bay.

If you’re more into Modernism, check out Miami’s emerging edgy MiMo district with lots of funky ’50s and cool ’60s retro architecture. Trendy galleries, boutiques and cafés seem to pop up overnight providing a fun addition to Miami, South Florida’s playground. Plan on attending Art Basel, the mega annual art event this December in South Beach if you can, and you’ll have a hard time deciding which is more interesting...the art or the people.
For more info visit, www.miamiandbeaches.com.

Michelle Newman is a designer, writer and photographer focusing on art, craft, design, fashion, and cultural destinations. She has written for Better Homes and Gardens, Womans Day, Belle Armoire and Expressions. Based in San Antonio, Texas, she can be reached at michellenewmandesigns@hotmail.com.