Imagery
Miami, 2016
I walked quite a distance north along the beach, but I headed inland once I reached the Art Deco historical district. I don’t think I’m knowledgeable enough to be called an architecture buff, but I do like neat architecture, and art deco is always something I’ve liked. This building has most of the characteristics that you can find in Art Deco structures. The Art Deco Museum, in the Miami Design Preservation League building at 1001 Ocean Drive, has a lot of information; the following description of Art Deco architecture is taken from a panel there.
“[Art Deco's] primary form in Miami Beach is a vertical oriented rectangle which is divided into three parts, both horizontally and vertically. Its porch and pedestal comprise a clear base. The building is symmetric, and most have a strong vertical element to emphasize the axis of symmetry. The interior circulation is also symmetrical and axial. It consists of a doubled loaded corridor, in other words, a central hallway with rooms on both side. Concrete 'eyebrows' projecting above the windows provide shade from the tropical sun.”
If there is one thing missing here, it is that last element: the eyebrows. In fact, I saw a lot of buildings that did not have prominent eyebrows.