North Beach: Beyond Art Deco, Miami Beach’s Exuberant Postwar Architecture

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North Beach: Beyond Art Deco, Miami Beach’s Exuberant Postwar Architecture

Miami Beach Bandshell designed in 1961 by architect Norman Giller

Credit

City of Miami Beach

Despite being a city best known for its Art Deco architecture, Miami Beach is home to an incredible collection of postwar Modern buildings and structures. North Beach has one of the largest and most cohesive concentrations of Miami Modern (MiMo) buildings, nearly 700, in South Florida. They include landmark hotels, commercial buildings, and garden-style apartment buildings. North Beach neighborhoods also incorporate other architectural styles, including Mediterranean Revival, Art Deco, and Moderne – all blending together to give a distinctively urban character to this northern part of Miami Beach. 
  
The tour will depart from Lincoln Road, a Morris Lapidus designed pedestrian mall and will progress to the northern end of the city. Attendees will get an exclusive behind the scenes look at the glamourous Fontainebleau Hotel. From there, the tour will make a stop at the Miami Beach Bandshell, where guests will depart the bus for a walking tour of the north beach’s residential multi-family neighborhoods. The tour will conclude with a final stop at the spectacular International Inn located on Normandy Isle along Biscayne Bay. 

 

The tour will be led by Deborah Tackett, the Historic Preservation and Architecture Officer for the City of Miami Beach. 
 

Planning Notes: We recommend pairing this tour with the morning tour "South Beach: Deco-Modern to Gehry" and planning to get lunch and stay in Miami Beach for the day, but it is not required to do so. Tour participants who are doing the South Beach morning tour have the option to stay in Miami Beach after the morning tour and meet up with the North Beach tour at the meeting location (TBA). 


Bus and Walking Tour* 
Saturday,  June 1, 1:30–5:00pm   
$95  
 

*Bus picks from the Mayfair House Hotel. 

  
All tours will be submitted for AIA credits.  

Tour Leader

Deborah Tackett

Deborah Tackett is the Historic Preservation and Architecture Officer for the City of Miami Beach. With over 20 years’ experience in both the private and public sector, she has extensive knowledge of the principals, methods and practices of historic preservation, planning, urban design, architecture, and public administration. During her time with the City, Ms. Tackett has been responsible for overseeing the survey, research, and historic designation of six local historic districts, three National Register historic districts, and numerous historic sites and single-family homes.  

2024 National Symposium Miami: Streams of Modernity, Postwar to Postmodern

Join us in Miami and Coral Gables, Florida, from May 29 to June 1, 2024, and experience one of the country’s richest collections of mid-century and postmodern architecture. Entitled Streams of Modernity: Postwar to Postmodern, the 2024 National Symposium is a collaboration of Docomomo US and the Docomomo US/Florida chapter.