{"id":85829,"date":"2025-12-16T21:36:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T21:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/85829\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T21:36:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T21:36:13","slug":"the-13-best-art-deco-buildings-in-miami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/85829\/","title":{"rendered":"The 13 Best Art Deco Buildings in Miami"},"content":{"rendered":"

Art Deco turned 100<\/a> this year, and it doesn\u2019t look a day over\u2026<\/p>\n

Well, okay, so some of these buildings are in spectacular shape, and others look like the architectural equivalent of Flossie Dickey<\/a>.\u00a0Nevertheless, this school of design remains as interesting, affecting, and popular to us as it was to the 16 million people who first flocked to the highly influential 1925 Paris L\u2019Exposition internationale des arts d\u00e9coratifs (International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts), at which the consensus of the intertwined art and architecture worlds sets its rough date of birth.<\/p>\n

A year after that expo, the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 \u2014 the\u00a0\u201cBig Blow\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 devastated South Florida, killing more than a hundred locals, damaging or destroying 5,000 buildings, and causing more than a billion dollars in adjusted damages. It created a lot of suffering, but also a metaphorical blank canvas for new structures and architectural approaches. Tropical Art Deco became all the rage, and today, the Miami Beach Architectural Historic District<\/a> is \u201chome to the largest concentration of Art Deco architecture in the world, with more than 800 preserved historic buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are 13 of the most striking examples in Miami.<\/p>\n

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Ace Theater<\/p>\n

While wide swaths of Miami Art Deco are revered and maintained, some important pieces of history have nevertheless been neglected.<\/p>\n

Enter the Ace Theater. Built in 1930, it was the \u201conly entertainment facility to serve the Black community in Coconut Grove\u201d \u2014 and beyond \u2014 \u201cduring the segregation era,\u201d a historic preservation designation report notes. The theater closed in the late \u201970s and is currently owned by Dorothy M. Wallace \u2014 one of the first two African American alumni to receive a master\u2019s degree from the University of Miami in 1963 \u2014 and her daughter, Denise. While it sat empty for years, its designation as a historic site by the city of Miami in 2014 and its addition to the National Register of Historic Places paved the way for a long-overdue restoration<\/a> of this cultural and Art Deco landmark. (See the work on the playfully block-y marquee with a 96-year-old Wallace beaming in the background above.)<\/p>\n

Bass Museum<\/p>\n

Even in one of the most Instagrammable cities in the world, the neon seafoam words, \u201cEternity Now,\u201d festooned across the epic and imposing paleolithic coral Art Deco fa\u00e7ade of the Bass Museum is a sight to behold \u2014 a decree that simultaneously blasts grandiloquence and simmering subtextual profundity, the sort of yin and yang duality to which denizens of the greater Miami area are by now very well accustomed. Originally designed in the early 1930s by Russell Pancoast \u2014 also the man behind Lincoln Road\u2019s Mead Building and the Miami Beach Women\u2019s Club \u2014 to serve as the Miami Beach Public Library and Art Center and \u201cthe first public exhibition space for art in South Florida,\u201d the building became the Bass Museum of Art after John and Johanna Bass donated their private collection to the City of Miami Beach in 1964, making the National Register fourteen years later. As an architectural-adjacent bonus, it\u2019s one of the best places to see daring modern art in the city.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoThe Cameo has lived many lives.<\/p>\n

Cameo Theater<\/p>\n

Damn, has the Cameo Theater lived. Not many spaces can claim to have launched with a classic Hollywood gala (\u201cMiami\u2019s Newest and Finest Theater,\u201d a 1938 ad for the debut reads, adding, \u201cSee Yourself in the Movies to Be Taken of Tonight\u2019s Opening\u201d) before eventually putting on Sunday services for soldiers during World War II, hosting Yiddish vaudeville for Holocaust survivors, platforming Black Flag, and serving as a location for a hot \u2018n\u2019 randy Elton John video<\/a>. Even now, abandoned after a stint as a nightclub and looking as if it had been reimagined by the designer of a punk rock venue bathroom stall, there is a \u201cif you build it, they will come\u201d magic to the fa\u00e7ade of glass blocks and grand topline sculptures that suggests its story is not yet fully told.<\/p>\n

Cardozo South Beach<\/p>\n

The Cardozo looms large in the modern Art Deco imagination. Not only does its classic architecture serve as a backdrop for popular films ranging from The Bird Cage, There\u2019s Something About Mary, and Marley & Me to Any Given Sunday and the 1959 Frank Capra-directed Frank Sinatra vehicle A Hole in the Head, but the property has also been owned by local royalty Gloria and Emilio Estefan since 1992. The hotel reopened in 2019 after a four-year, $15 million renovation, which, in a pleasant twist, sought to bring the original aesthetic to the surface \u2014 including a restoration of the original lobby terrazzo floor \u2014 rather than gutting it out of all-but-surface existence. That\u2019s a labor of love approach that makes sense when one considers that Gloria has said in several interviews that she first told her mother of her plans to buy the hotel during a family beach day when she was a mere two years old.<\/p>\n

\"photoToday, the Colony is home to Miami New Drama.<\/p>\n

Colony Theater<\/p>\n

For many tourists, The Colony is very likely their first encounter with Miami-style Art Deco splendor. It is, after all, not only smack dab in the middle of Lincoln Road, but also a lovingly maintained showstopper of a building that breezily rivals anything else on that consciously beautified stretch. Not for nothing was it nicknamed the \u201cBeauty Queen\u201d in the 1930s, back in its early days as a Paramount Pictures-built and administered movie theater \u2014 no small feat when Carole Lombard is among your visitors. Of course, as the setting for Nip\/Tuck, Miami also appreciates a good facelift, and so kudos to the City of Miami Beach for investing in a $6.5 million restoration of the fa\u00e7ade and lobby in 2006. Don\u2019t just gawk at the outside, though: The Colony is home to Miami New Drama<\/a>, which puts on consistently top-tier theater productions.<\/p>\n

Miami Beach Lifeguard Towers<\/p>\n

Maybe other cities corral their lifeguards into drab, scrubby shacks, but here in Miami, your rescuer is not only going to be a physical specimen who makes Baywatch look like a reality TV show about the World\u2019s Ugliest Dog Contest, but they\u2019re going to be swooping out of one of 36 Art Deco-inspired huts<\/a> shellacked in the brightest of bright colors. Even our first responders don\u2019t give a second thought to being fashion-forward.<\/p>\n

\"photoThe Patrol Headquarters building is one of the most recognizable examples of Art Deco architecture on Miami Beach.<\/p>\n

Miami Beach Patrol Headquarters\/Miami Beach Post Office<\/p>\n

Municipal architecture doesn\u2019t exactly have a great reputation \u2014 these are people who take \u201cbrutalist\u201d as a compliment, for Frank Lloyd Wright\u2019s sake. Not Miami Beach, though. Both Miami Beach Patrol Headquarters (actually the current home of Ocean Rescue) and the city Post Office are works of art in and of themselves. Start at Beach Patrol, which kind of looks like what might happen if SpongeBob and Squidward\u2019s house had a baby: It\u2019s on a lovely Miami Beach boardwalk facing the ocean and right behind the Art Deco Welcome Center and Museum, which faces a stretch of Ocean Drive that includes the highly modernized Art Deco landmark The Clevelander. From there, the Post Office is maybe a ten-minute walk. Once you\u2019ve taken pictures of its distinctive outside architecture, be sure to go inside to stand in the middle of the awe-inspiring rotunda, complete with a fountain, ceiling installations, a mural, and\u2026yes, P.O. boxes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Miracle Theater<\/p>\n

Yes, Virginia, there is Miami Art Deco off South Beach \u2014 and this jewel in the heart of Coral Gables is a perfect example of it. First opened as a classic movie house in 1948, the building was purchased by \u201cThe City Beautiful\u201d in 1995 to serve as home to the Actors\u2019 Playhouse theater company, which puts on a steady stream of smart, fun, and delightful local productions for all ages. You want swoon-worthy? Check that wraparound marquee, the swooping restored tile design on the floor of the exterior lobby, the old-school glass-encased box office \u2014 and that\u2019s all before you enter the breathtaking interior of the building! The brightly lit \u201cmiracle\u201d beacon beaming up from the marquee is some real truth in advertising.<\/p>\n

The National<\/p>\n

Even among the hundreds of landmark structures in the Miami Beach Art Deco Historic District, the National Hotel stands out. That\u2019s not just because of its distinctive exterior, sweeping up fourteen stories to a brightly lit silver cupola; or the fact that it boasts the longest infinity pool in a town where the race to aquatic infinity is virtually its own competitive sport; or the gorgeous ceiling mosaic recreating \u201cYoung Lady in Green,\u201d a 1927 painting by Polish artist and Art Deco pioneer Tamara de Lempicka (1894-1980), whose profile recently got a much-needed restoration with the excellent 2024 documentary The True Story of Tamara De Lempicka & the Art of Survival; or its elegant yet slyly irreverent lobby. No, it\u2019s all these things, together; a synergy that offers visitors a transportive, immersive, and unique experience.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Tower Theater is an Art Deco structure in Little Havana.<\/p>\n

Photo by Miami Dade College<\/p>\n

Tower Theater<\/p>\n

Yes, Calle Ocho has some Art Deco for you, too. Next to Domino Park and across the street from the legendary Ball & Chain, the gorgeous Tower Theater boasts its own rich legacy. It opened in 1926 as the \u201cfinest state-of-the-art theater in the South,\u201d but shifted cultural gears in the 1960s when Cuban refugees began to arrive in the neighborhood. \u201cFor many Cuban families, films at Tower Theater Miami were an introduction to American culture in addition to pure entertainment,\u201d its website<\/a> notes. \u201cSoon, the theater altered its programming to include English-language films with Spanish subtitles, and eventually Spanish-language films.\u201d The theater closed in 1984 but was eventually leased to Miami-Dade College, where it spent years as the home of the Miami Film Festival. (The theater was designated Best Art-House Cinema by New Times in 2014, 2021, and 2023.) In 2024, the city controversially cancelled that lease. Since then, the building has hosted an exhibition on Celia Cruz<\/a>, and in 2025, Miami Film Festival Gems returned to the venue<\/a> for the first time in three years.<\/p>\n

Waldorf Towers<\/p>\n

Designed by the prolific Miami architect Albert Anis, Waldorf Towers, built in 1937, is both modest and regal, making the most of its three-story canvas, which incorporates smooth wraparound curves, \u201ceyebrow\u201d ledges, phalanxes of glass blocks, and, in the Tropical Deco coup de gr\u00e2ce, a glass panel encased \u201ccrow\u2019s nest\u201d tower with so lovely a view Rapunzel would probably keep her hair in a bun and just order room service.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Se\u00f1or Frog\u2019s (RIP)<\/p>\n

Sometimes, to see the true power of an aesthetic \u2014 especially in a city such as Miami, which exists in an almost constant state of churn \u2014 we must look at what it outlasts. The building at 1450 Collins Ave., which is among the most whimsical and alluring of examples of Art Deco on Miami Beach, sat shuttered for years, awaiting redevelopment after the Mexican food joint Se\u00f1or Frog\u2019s closed during COVID. Most recently, it\u2019s been an upscale clothing boutique, and there have been\u00a0reports\u00a0that it might become a hotel \u2014 not the most novel of prospects on Miami Beach, but no doubt profitable considering the market. (The property\u2019s last sale price was $10 million.)<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s pour one out, though, for the still-standing Henry Hohauser-designed fa\u00e7ade dreamy enough to have represented \u2014 drawing from this excellent, concise history<\/a> \u2014 Hoffman\u2019s Cafeteria (1940-1975; with a three-year stint as an Army mess hall), a senior citizen dance hall (the Warsaw Ballroom, 1975-1981), Ovo supper club, the rock-n-roll-n-2500-gallon-shark-tank China Club, a younger, wilder version of the Warsaw Ballroom again (1988-1999), Jerry\u2019s Famous Deli, and Mister Amphibian. Throughout it all, it has maintained its grandeur and impact, straight through to this day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Art Deco turned 100 this year, and it doesn\u2019t look a day over\u2026 Well, okay, so some of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1602,11503,225,227,226,2278,2279],"class_list":{"0":"post-85829","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hialeah","8":"tag-architecture","9":"tag-city-guide","10":"tag-hialeah","11":"tag-hialeah-headlines","12":"tag-hialeah-news","13":"tag-lists","14":"tag-venues"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}