Miami Architecture Handbook: 17 Must-See Places for a Memorable Vacation

This city has everything from Art Deco architecture to sandy beaches and palm trees. There are many reasons to visit Miami, Florida, including its stunning beaches, pleasant year-round climate, rich cultural offerings, professional sports teams, and lively nightlife. However, the unique Miami architecture is a significant draw. But what sets that city distinct from the many other lovely places in the world?

Architectural Styles in Miami

Of the many things that bring visitors to Miami, the city’s architecture is undoubtedly among the most noteworthy. Even while Art Deco predominates throughout Miami, particularly on South Beach, the city also features some cutting-edge examples of modern architecture and Mediterranean Revival structures.

We’ve put together this guide to the many architectural styles that may be found in Miami architecture to satisfy your curiosity.

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1) Art Deco

Art Deco is a broad concept that includes various artistic movements and architectural and decorative aesthetics, such as streamlining, tropical, and med-deco. This style has significantly affected Miami architecture, which emerged in France during World War One.

The Miami Art Deco District, with its 960 historic structures, is home to the world’s most extensive inventory of Art Deco architecture. The Miami Design Preservation League (MDPL) is making many rigorous attempts to save the structures that feature these designs.

2) Mediterranean Revival

This style of architecture was imported to the United States in the nineteenth century and was inspired by European styles such as the Spanish Renaissance, Italian Renaissance, French Colonial, etc. One of Miami’s oldest neighborhoods.

Coral Gables is an excellent example of the Mediterranean Revival style of architecture. Another area where you may see examples of this type of building style on a grand scale is the Beverly Terrace Historic District.

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3) Modern Architecture

Modern Miami Architecture is a type of building design prevalent in Miami’s high-rises and beachside resorts that have sprung up in recent decades. Morris Lapidus, with his Fontainebleau Hotel and Temple Menorah, is credited for popularising this style. As the name implies, this style is cutting-edge and emphasizes glitz and flair more.

Miami Architecture

Art deco buildings along Ocean Drive could be the first item that springs to mind when you mention Miami’s architectural style. We can’t blame you for that, but surely you’re missing out on much of what sets Miami architecture apart.

The best-looking hotels, museums, and other attractions in Miami may be found away from the hustle and bustle of Ocean Drive. Many of these structures are historically significant, while others are useful in modern ways that benefit Miami’s community, such as providing parking or photo ops.

In any case, these structures are fascinating architectural feats in and of themselves. And now, without further ado, let’s look more closely at 17 marvels that perfectly exemplify Miami architecture.

*Note: The buildings listed below are in no particular sequence.

1) 1111 Lincoln Road

• Location: 1111 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, FL 33139
• Architect: Herzog & de Meuron
• Year: 2010

Not a luxury residential complex, posh hotel, or cutting-edge museum. Designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, it is a parking garage made of concrete and glass. There are 300 parking spots in the garage, with shops and eateries on the ground floor, the fifth floor, and the rooftop.

2) Biltmore Hotel

• Location: 1200 Anastasia Ave
• Architect: Schultze and Weaver
• Year: 1926

It’s as if you stepped into a 1930s movie when you entered this architectural masterpiece, thanks to its Mediterranean Beaux-Arts style, which evokes that glamorous era’s ruby lips and cigars. It’s most famous for exhibiting the best of Miami architecture and for having the largest swimming pool worldwide for several years.

3) Colonnade Plaza

• Location: 1201 Brickell Ave
• Architect: O. K. Houstoun, Jr. & H. Maxwell Parish
• Year: 1926

In its original form, this Miami structure housed The Mark Store in 1926. It was renovated in the 1980s to become what is now known as a Metro mall. This Brickell Avenue gem is shrouded in mystery. Still, we can say for sure that it seems like a breathtakingly beautiful, ultra-modern cathedral—the embodiment of Miami architecture.

Also Read: Paris Architecture: The Remodeling of a Demolished City into a Polished One

4) The Grove at Grand Bay

• Location: 2669 S Bayshore Dr, Miami, FL 33133
• Architect: Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)
• Year: 2016

Shade, balconies, and lake vistas are three defining features of Miami Architecture. In light of this case, Danish architect Bjarke Ingels of BIG Architects chose to revamp Miami’s oldest neighborhood, Coconut Grove, with cutting-edge opulence.

Bjarke Ingels hoped to create a residential complex that would feel luxurious modern aesthetic yet preserve Miami’s flair. The design by Ingels produces two gently winding towers that appear to be spinning to catch the scenery as they ascend into the sky by using floor panels that revolve every three feet at every height from the third to the seventeenth levels.

5) Bacardi Building

• Location: 2100 Biscayne Blvd
• Architect: Enrique Gutierrez
• Year: 1973

The two-building complex that houses Bacardi’s American headquarters (with the more minor 1974 addition built by Ignacio Carrera-Justiz) is one of Miami’s most recognizable landmarks.

The minimalistic edges of the façade gave away the architect’s collaboration with Mies van der Rohe on the Bacardi HQ in Mexico City. The other two walls of the building are covered in stunning hand-painted blue and white depictions of a tropical paradise by Brazilian artist Francisco Brennand. It’s well worth your time to stop by.

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6) Freedom Tower

• Location: 600 Biscayne Boulevard
• Architect: George A. Fuller, Schultze & Weaver
• Year: 1925

Originally constructed to house the offices and printing presses of The Miami News. After the newspaper stopped publishing, the building sat empty for almost 30 years. The United States government seized the Tower after the Castro dictatorship swept to power in Cuba, and thousands of political refugees invaded South Florida seeking a new beginning.

Currently serving as a museum and monument honoring Cuban refugees who settled in the United States. An exquisite example of the Mediterranean Revival style.

7) Fontainebleau Miami Beach Hotel

• Location: 4441 Collins Ave, Miami Beach
• Architect: Morris Lapidus
• Year: 1954

Morris Lapidus, a renowned architect, designed the extravagant Fontainebleau Hotel with one objective: to dazzle the eyes as much as possible. Moreover, it has been carried out thus in every particular since 1954. There are 11 pools here, and the renowned infinite staircase is only one of the many hallmarks of traditional Miami architecture.

8) Museum Garage

• Location:  Miami, FL 33137
• Architect: Clavel Arquitectos, J. Mayer H, K/R, Nicolas Buffe, WORKac
• Year: 2018

As a city where most people drive, Miami certainly has an affinity for aesthetically pleasing parking garages. Museum Garage in the Design District, with its exquisitely cartoonish exterior design, is the newest and, possibly, most stunning addition to our lineup of great parking garages.

9) The Ancient Spanish Monastery

• Location: 16711 West Dixie Highway
• Architect: Unidentified
• Year: 1141

Dating back to the 12th century, this Spanish Cistercian monastery is one of the oldest surviving structures in the Americas. After being constructed in the village of Sacramenia (Segovia) in 1925, the houses were deconstructed stone by stone, packed into more than 11,000 wooden pallets, marked for identification, and brought to the United States, where they were eventually restored near North Miami Beach.

10) Adrienne Arsht Center

• Location: 1300 Biscayne Boulevard
• Architect: Cesar Pelli
• Year: 2006

The Arsht Center has a plaza in the middle that connects the two significant buildings, the Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House and the John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall, and a tower.

As Miami’s first Art Deco building, the 1929 Sears store tower was saved and integrated into the plaza’s design. Huge glass and steel curtain walls mark the entrances to the facilities. Interior features, though, are where things heat up.

11) Old United States Post Office and Courthouse

• Location: 100 NE 1st Ave
• Architect: Kiehnel and Elliott and Oscar Wenderoth
• Year: 1914

This three-story Neo-Classical structure was the first significant federal building built in Miami. The building’s Spanish-tiled rooftop and broad arching canopies are climate-responsive adaptations compared to the classically-inspired architectural elements.

12) Miami Tower + James L. Knight International Center

• Location:  100 Southeast 2nd Street
• Architect: Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
• Year: 1987

The tower comprises two buildings: the parking garage, which is ten stories tall, and the office building, which is 37 stories tall. The building’s stunning, ornate lighting at night has made it among the most scenic structures in Miami. It’s also noteworthy since it’s home to the first extended metro station in a skyscraper anywhere in the globe.

13) Espirito Santo Plaza

• Location:  1395 Brickell Ave
• Architect: John Pedersen Fox Associates PC (KPF)
• Year: 2022

You can’t think about Miami architecture without seeing this landmark. Its concave façade is an eye-catching design element. Its distinctive form results from the collision of a rectangular portion and a particular region of a cylinder, with the two shapes overlapping.

Miami Architecture: Art Deco at its Finest

Unless you’re a particular type of tourist, Miami isn’t the place you’d go to admire the city’s architecture. If so, your initial impression of Ocean Drive will be one of wonder at the brightly colored Art Deco structures that line the boulevard. See these Miami architecture masterpieces next time you visit the city.

1) Park Central Hotel

• Location: 640 Ocean Drive
• Architect: Henry Hohauser
• Year: 1937

This pastel-hued landmark is the highest Art Deco hotel on Ocean Drive, earning it the nickname “The Blue Jewel.” Extensive ornamental elements can be seen throughout the hotel, including an embedded porch, panoramic windows above the entry mirrored by circular patterns at the top, geometric decorations at the entrance of the center bay, and a sleek stainless steel sign.

2) Waldorf Towers Hotel

• Location: 860 Ocean Drive
• Architect: Albert Anis
• Year: 1937

This hotel is one of the most recognizable buildings in Miami architecture because of its unique round corner. It was saved from destruction thanks to a multimillion-dollar refurbishment completed in December 2001.

3) The Carlyle Hotel

• Location: 1250 Ocean Drive
• Architect: Richard Kiehnel and John Elliot
• Year: 1939

The hotel’s sleek Art Deco design is immediately recognizable. Here, the front porch’s overhang doubles as the foundation for the upper floors, which are held up by tiny curved columns. Masonry with a filigree design is used for the top embellishment.

4) Wolfsonian Museum

• Location: 1001 Washington Ave
• Architect: Mark Hampton
• Year: 1926

The Wolfsonian Museum building is a massive block with a vast white-hued façade that dates back to the 1920s when it was constructed as a storage warehouse. The ornamentation is exemplary of the Spanish Baroque Revival style, while the cast stucco work above and surrounding the entryway illustrates the Neo-Churrigueresque style.

Miami is known for its beautiful beaches, but the city has so much more to offer than simply sunbathing and water activities. After reading this, you should have a better sense of what to look for and where to go if you’re interested in a specific architectural style. Indulge in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take in the unique Miami architecture while you and your loved ones relish Miami’s enthralling art and culture.