Discovering South Beach Deco: Walking Tours in the Miami Beach Art Deco District
by Richard Beaubien, Valerie Beaubien
"Discovering South Beach Deco: Walking Tours in the Miami Beach Art Deco District" is both a reference book and a tour guide. It presents eight self-guided walks, from sizzling Ocean Drive to the charming neighborhoods off the beach. Each tour includes a user-friendly map, historical background and commentary on buildings and architectural details, as well as pointers to food, museums and other diversions along the route. Over 300 buildings and historic sites are covered, most with accompanying black and white pictures. Supplementary chapters explore the history and architecture of Miami Beach in more detail, making this an indispensable guide for locals and well-informed tourists alike.
Miami Architecture: An AIA Guide Featuring Downtown, the Beaches, and Coconut Grove
by Allan T. Shulman, Randall C. Robinson Jr, James F. Donnelly
A major urban center perched between vast natural ecosystems, Miami is known for a strikingly diverse built environment that is barely 100 years old. Within this brief span, the city has constantly reinvented itself, seeking a tangible identity as Floridas largest metropolis. In this invented landscape, architecture, landscape design, and urban planning have played a particularly important role in creating Miamis modern character and unique identity.
George Merrick's Coral Gables "Where Your 'Castles in Spain' are Made Real!"
by Arva Moore Parks
A beautiful book by an author who knows her subject. Details Merrick's creation of a "City Beautiful" as propounded by Daniel Burnham, woven together with Merrick's own life story, chronologically.
Vizcaya: An American Villa and Its Makers
by Witold Rybczynski and Laurie Olin
In Vizcaya: An American Villa and Its Makers, a celebrated architecture critic and writer and an award-winning landscape architect explore the little-known story of Vizcaya, an extraordinary national treasure. Witold Rybczynski and Laurie Olin use a rich collection of illustrations, historic photographs, and narrative to document the creation of this stunning house and landscape. Vizcaya was completed in 1916 as the winter retreat of Chicago industrialist James Deering. The cosmopolitan bachelor, who chose Miami for its warm climate, enlisted the guidance of artist Paul Chalfin, with whom he traveled throughout Italy to survey houses and gardens. With the assistance of architect F. Burrall Hoffman, Jr., and garden designer Diego Suarez, the 180-acre site on Biscayne Bay was transformed into a grand estate, complete with lagoons, canals, citrus groves, a farm village, a yacht harbor, and a 40-room Baroque mansion.
