Architecture sights in Miami
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Liberty City
Liberty City, northwest of Downtown, is a misnomer. Made infamous by the Liberty City Riots in 1980, the area is poor and crime is higher than in other parts of the city. And, while plans exist to renovate the area by creating a village of cultural and tourist attractions, the prospects of that happening in the near future look doubtful.
Whites, fearing 'black encroachment' on their neighborhoods, actually went so far as to build a wall at the then-border of Liberty City - NW 12th Ave from NW 62nd to NW 67th Sts - to separate their neighborhoods. Part of the wall still stands, at NW 12th Ave between NW 63rd and 64th Sts.
For information on Liberty City, Overtown and other …
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B
Miami Beach Post Office
If you’re going to send the family some corny postcards (of which there is no shortage), do so from this 1937 deco gem, the first South Beach renovation project tackled by preservationists in the ‘70s. This Depression moderne building in the ‘stripped classic’ style was constructed thanks to President Franklin D Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), which supported unemployed artists during the Great Depression. On the exterior, note the bald eagle; inside, gaze at a beautifully restored painted paper ceiling and a large wall mural of the Seminole Wars.
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C
Old US Post Office
Constructed in 1912, this post office and county courthouse served as the first federal building in Miami. The building, with its elaborate doors and carved entryways, was purchased in 1937 to serve as the country’s first savings and loan (and ergo, the core of the industry that would fund Miami’s skyline). Government prosecutors moved into the adjacent Federal Courthouse and Federal Justice Building. Today you can visit the old courthouse to check out Denman Fink’s 1940 mural Law Guides Florida Progress in the main courtroom on the 2nd floor.
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D
Gusman Center for the Performing Arts/Olympia Theater
The Arsht Center is modernly pretty, but the Olympia is a one-of-a-kind classic. You know how the kids in Hogwarts can see the sky through their dining hall roof? Well the Olympia recreates the whole effect sans Dumbledore, using 246 twinkling stars and clouds cast over an indigo-deep, sensual shade of a ceiling. The theater first opened in 1925; today the lobby serves as the Downtown Miami Welcome Center, doling out helpful visitor information and organizing tours of the historic district; at night you can still catch a range of theater and music performances.
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E
Dade County Courthouse
If you end up on trial here, at least you’ll get a free tour of one of the most imposing courthouses in America. When Miami outgrew its first courthouse, it moved legal proceedings to this neoclassical icon, built between 1925 and 1929 for $4 million. It’s a very…appropriate building; if structures were people, the courthouse would definitely be a judge. Some useless trivia: back in the day, the top nine floors served as a ‘secure’ prison, from which more than 70 prisoners escaped.
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F
Bacardi Building
You don’t need to down 151 to appreciate the striking Miami headquarters of the world’s largest family-owned spirits company, Bacardi. The main event is a beautifully decorated tower that looks like the mosaic pattern of a tropical bathhouse on steroids; inside is a small art gallery and museum dedicated to the famously anti-Castro Bacardis (think about what ‘Cuba Libre’ actually means the next time you order one).
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G
Miracle Theater
This gorgeous, 80-year old theater is one of the best bits of deco anywhere off the Beach. Today, the Actors’ Playhouse company puts on productions in one of three performance spaces – the 600-seat main-stage auditorium, a smaller children’s theater and a black box for cutting-edge works – although the theater is nice to visit whether you’ve got tickets or not.
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H
Colony Hotel
The Colony is the oldest deco hotel in Miami Beach. It was the first hotel in Miami, and perhaps America, to incorporate its sign (a zigzaggy neon wonder) as part of its overall design. Inside the lobby are excellent examples of space-age interiors, including Saturn-shaped lamps and Flash Gordon elevators.
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Crescent Hotel
Besides having one of the most recognizable neon facades in Miami Beach, the Crescent’s signage is novel in that it attracts the eye down, rather than up. Straight on down, in fact: right into the lobby, which was kinda the point.
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I
Ocean Terrace
Just across Collins Ave is Ocean Terrace, evocative of an old-Miami main street (note the colorfully tiled facade of Walgreens) with oceanfront cafés, MiMo apartment buildings and a strong Argentine flavor.
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