Sherbrooke Hotel, Miami

The Sherbrooke Hotel on the corner of Collins Avenue and 9th Street in Miami South Beach is a fine example of streamline design.

It was constructed quite late, post WWII, 1947. The architects were MacKay and Gibbs. It is a building as a ship, the corner parapet acting as a bridge. There is even a couple of portholes, one each side of the main entrance.

Often streamline buildings have regular, horizontal bands of windows but the Sherbrooke Hotel has an unusual arrangement of different sized windows.

As is often the case in sunny climates concrete eyebrows provide shading for the windows.

Bass Museum of Art, Miami

The Bass Museum of Art in Miami South Beach started life as the Miami Beach Public Library and Art Center in 1930.

The building was designed by Russell Pancoast who was a grandson of Miami Beach pioneer John A Collins.

In the 1960s the City of Miami Beach accepted the at collection of John and Johanna Bass and the Bass Museum of Art was established.

The building includes decoration featuring seabirds such as this panel with a pelican and a series of 3 seagulls at each corner.

Apartments, Miami South Beach

There is a lot I like about this apartment block in Miami South Beach.

Firstly, the chequerboard pattern above the second storey window and down through the small vertical windows to the concrete planter at ground level.

Next to the main windows an incredible number of horizontal lines, I'm not sure of they are speeding or not but they certainly exceed the rule of three.

Those window don't actually cut into the corner of the building as there is a supporting column there but the deep eyebrow providing shade creates the illusion that the window is set back into the building.

Lastly the corner furthest from our view behind the palm tree is curves and at the roofline there is three small portholes.

Chatham Apartments, Miami South Beach

Chatham Apartments is another fantastic deco building in Miami South Beach.

The standout feature is the vertical fin on the front of the building bearing the Chatham Apts name and I love the way Apartments has been abbreviated to Apts. The fin stretches high above the roofline with a flagpole on top and appears to require extra support from a element which I would describe as a double surfboard loggia as it is similar to the example on the Avram Villa in Asmara.

The shade eyebrows over the windows are interesting. Some are squared off while others on the cental section are curved.

The building is white with blue highlights including the three speedlines around the top of the facade.

There is also interesting decoration either side of the fin just above the entrance. These rectangular boxes are actually air conditioners which have been disguised to work with the Art Deco architecture.

At the front of the property there is a lovely low concrete fence constructed of interlocking semi-circles.

The building is curved on the ends and understandably the eyebrows are also curved.

The air conditioning units stand out a bit more on the corner but it is still a very elegant solution to one of necessities for Florida living.

Avalon Hotel, Miami South Beach

When you go to Miami South Beach, make sure you give yourself enough time to see all the Deco and MiMo (Miami Modern) buildings. Actually, it would take a long time to see them all but you should try to take a guided tour from the Miami Design Preservation League.

At the very least you must walk down Ocean Drive both during the day and at night. The hotels and other buildings along the ocean front are fantastic but they take on a different aspect when lit up after sunset.

This is a night-time view of the Avalon Hotel. The neon lettering of the name naturally stand out in the dark but also a single white spotlight really highlights the features of the building especially the eyebrows over the windows.

Apartments, Miami

A great apartment block in Miami South Beach.

I especially like the window that cut into the corner of the recessed central section of the building and thin concrete eyebrow that sits above the second storey windows. There also a similar eyebrow over the windows on the ground floor.

I looks like the building has a flat roof with the railing around the front section.

Above the central recessed section of the building, there is a panel with three raised vertical lines. Above that there are two arrangements of three discs incorporated into the metalwork of the roof top railings.

The pinks of the building certainly convey the Miami Deco style.

A House in Miami

I love the glimpse of this house in Miami over the hedge.

Naturally it is painted in pastel pink with the deco details picked out in green.

The arrangement of 5 circular discs, one serving as a porch above the main door with another four above the window provide a very striking feature. Each disc is smaller than it's predecessor as they progress up the facade.

The panel directly below the window is fantastic and someone with more patience than me painted it.

Banana Republic, Miami South Beach

The former Chase Federal Savings Loan Association building in Miami South Beach has been turned into a Banana Republic clothing store.

It is a great example of the reuse of an existing building when it is not longer required for its original purpose.

The original relief work on the front of the building above the entrance remains. It depicts 'FC' inside a disc bearing the words "Chase Federal Savings Loan Association" with two stylised eagles, one on either side.

The updated signage for Banana Republic is above the carvings and therefore does not interfere with it.

Inside, some of the old desks are not used as counters and the large safe has been converted to a changing room. It is great to see the masive round door still in situ.

The front door is also well done. A mass of metal and glass, it still conveys an impression of a bank but allows a modern clothes retailler to show off their designs and entice customers into the store.

Cameo Theatre, Miami South Beach

The Cameo Theatre is in the Art Deco mecca of Miami South Beach.

It was designed by Robert E Collins and built in 1938.

The main features of the facade are the large block of glass bricks above the entrance and the panel above that with a cameo in the centre of stylised plants.

Chandler Building, Miami

Miami South Beach is famous for the deco hotels along Ocean Drive but there are lots of other deco buildings it seems there is almost one on every corner.

The Chandler Building is a large commercial building which curves around its prominent corner location. The parapet is slightly taller on the corner section then takes a single step down along the side.

A band of stylised deco motifs sits just below the roofline but the most interesting feature to me is the red and black bands of tiles interspersed with naive shields.

Beacon Hotel, Miami

The Beacon Hotel on Miami's Ocean Drive was built in 1937 from a design by New York architect Harry O. Nelson.

The night-time neons highlight some of the deco features of the hotel's facade. The strong vertical columns above the entrance and the decoration along the roofline.

Underneath each window there are three broad bands in relief protraying the rule of three, a deco standard.

The etched doors (below) are magnificent. Semi-circular glass panes create a full circle when the doors are closed. The design features a mirror image of flamingoes and tropical plants.

Colony Hotel, Miami South Beach

The Colony Hotel is one of the fabulous Art Deco hotels along Ocean Drive in Miami South Beach. It was designed by Henry Hohauser in 1935. Hohauser designed many buildings in the South Beach precinct providing a significant contribution to the Deco heritage of the area.

The building has simple decoration. A large sign dominates the front of the building spelling out Colony Hotel in bold letters supported on an inverted ‘T’. There are several series of thin horizontal bands either side of the sign and short vertical bars along the central part of the roofline with a zig-zag pattern on either side.

The windows form recessed horizontal bands with protruding eyebrows providing additional shade from the Florida sun. The eyebrows curve around the sides giving the building a nice profile from street level.

The windows themselves cut through the corner of the hotel but there are also supporting columns giving the overall appearance of a continuous wall.

At night the character of the whole area changes when the neon is lit. The Colony Hotel is no exception as you can see from the photo below.

Abbey Hotel, Miami South Beach

The Abbey Hotel, in Miami’s famed South Beach Art Deco precinct, was built in 1940 to plans by architect Albert Anis.

The hotel occipies a corner site with the main door set right on the corner. The name of the hotel is spelt out right above the door. Further up, the roofline features two barber’s poles.

The building itself is quite plain with the windows set-back creating strong horizontal banding between each row of windows. The ground floor is coloured darker than the upper two storeys of the hotel perhaps to distinguish between the public and private spaces within the building.

There is a deco panel along the side of the hotel at street level featuring a nice representation of a stork.

The crowning glory of the Abbey Hotel, however, is the relief of the Salamander on the front of the building above the door.

Now you don’t often see a Salamander as decoration on a building but then nothing would surprise me in Miami South Beach.