Treasures of the past
Florida's history is thousands of years old and to discover it, go to the Crystal River State archaeological site which would have been inhabited from 200
B.C. to the 16th century! Stelae or ceremonial stones flank several Indian burial mounds, which archaeologists believe were topped by temples, in the tradition of the great Mesoamerican civilizations. The Seminole Indians are the direct descendants of these great peoples, the first true Floridians. Yet for centuries they were attacked and hunted, forced to take refuge in the heart of the Everglades swamp. Today, living in small reservations, such as the Miccosukee Indian Village, they continue their traditions, especially in terms of habitat, as shown by the chickees, huts made of palm leaves and cypress, with a rot-proof wooden floor raised about a meter to limit the damage of humidity. In the 17th century, Florida also became Spanish. The first settlers' buildings were often rudimentary wooden huts with thatched roofs. Religious congregations built many of them throughout Florida, but of the hundreds of wooden missions of the time, few remains remain. However, it is impossible to miss the one that can boast of being the largest Spanish fort in the United States: the Castillo San Marcos of Saint Augustine! Its fortification system is impressive: moats, covered walkways and glacis, drawbridges and harrows made of pine beams covered with iron, surrounding walls up to 6 m wide and firing platforms protect this small city within the city organized around its Plaza de Armas. A set built in an astonishing material: the lumachelle, sedimentary and calcareous rock formed by millions of corals and compressed shells which can resist the impact of a cannonball without breaking!
Amazing 19th century
The main material of the 19th century was wood, which Florida could exploit at leisure in its large forests. Towns entirely dedicated to wood cutting were even built, like Cedar Key. The very first buildings of the Crackers of Florida were rather basic but showed a great ingenuity, in particular in the search for ventilation and insulation. The houses were generally built on bases mixing limestone and rot-proof wood. Their planks of cypress and red cedar were assembled with wooden spikes and cast iron nails. Whether they consisted of one room (single-pen house), two rooms with a central fireplace (saddlebag house) or two rooms separated by a central covered passageway (dogtrot house), these houses always had a gable roof and a gallery in front. With the advent of the clapboard frame, these modest houses were then able to expand. See the McMullen house in the traditional village of Pinellas County with its pitched roof covered with cypress tiles. The four-square houses can be recognized by their four-sided roofs topped by a lantern designed to promote ventilation. This constant concern to adapt to the climate is also found in the houses of Key West, largely inspired by the Creole habitat of the Bahamas. Built on pillar foundations allowing fresh air to circulate and recognizable by their shutters and gables facing the street, these houses retain the sobriety of volumes and plans of the "shotgun houses", houses consisting of a simple string of rooms. Then gradually, in the Keys, as in the rest of Florida, these houses will be won over by the fashionable styles, from neoclassical to Victorian, passing by the extravagant Gingerbread style with its astonishing sculpted balustrades. In Key West, the "eyebrow houses" are a must-see. These eyebrows are, in fact, the roof overhangs elegantly worked to hide the second floor windows. Another very popular style is the "steamboat" whose beautiful wooden decorations are reminiscent of the steamboats of the time. Pensacola, Fernandina Beach, Mount Dora and Tallahassee are rich in beautiful wood homes with more elegant and elaborate decorations. Other wooden masterpieces are the mansions of the great plantations, such as Goodwood House and Gamble House. These houses are always in the center of the plantation and often have a parapet on the roof to watch the work in the fields. Their facades are decorated with large verandas supported by imposing colonnades, but also with loggias, decorative turrets and wooden lacework. But this richness of decoration should not make you forget the reality of this slave system... a visit to the Kingsley plantation where 23 slave huts built in tabby, a handmade concrete made of burnt shells and corals, with more than rudimentary comfort, will remind you of this. The end of the century was marked by the competition between two great railroad magnates: Henry Flagler and Henry Plant. The two men vied with each other to create the most sumptuous hotels to attract visitors to the major terminals of their respective railroads. Among the most beautiful buildings of this race to extravagance, let's note: the Flagler College (formerly Ponce de Leon Hotel) with its rotunda with marble fireplace and its gilded dome decorated with stucco; the Zorayda Castle, a 1/10th replica of the Alhambra in Granada or the Henry B. Plant Museum (formerly Tampa Bay Hotel), whose minarets are visible from miles around... you will have understood that the Hispano-Moorish influence was a must!
Eclectic abundance
The first half of the 20th century was marked by an unprecedented architectural boom. The style in vogue at the time was the Mediterranean style, which followed on from the Hispano-Moorish style that had been very popular in the previous century. Pastel-colored walls, red clay tile roofs, galleries, decorative towers, arches and arched bays, and elegant ironwork characterize this style, which is perfectly suited to the Florida climate. One of the great fans of this style was Addison Mizner, architect and developer who was responsible for the birth of Palm Beach. He created pedestrian walkways inspired by the streets of Spanish villages and multiplied the number of houses with courtyards and gardens. His fantasy? Covering the walls with condensed milk rubbed with glass wool to give them a patinated style! Another great real estate promoter and lover of eclectic styles: George Merrick, creator of Coral Gables, a heavenly complex housing some unusual buildings: the Biltmore Hotel with its 96 m replica of the Giralda of Seville, its immense hall lined with pillars and especially its swimming pool, the largest hotel pool in the USA; the Venetian Pool, a public swimming pool made of loggias, grottoes and Venetian-style towers; and above all, the 7 international villages giving the resort, in turn, an air of Petit France or a Chinese Forbidden City. Amazing! Espanola Way in South Beach and Fort Lauderdale are two other fascinating urban projects born during this boom, which also saw the appearance of the craziest private residences. The two most famous are Vizcaya and Ca'd'ZaBiltmore Hoteln. The first one is simply the largest private residence in Florida! It's hard to describe this behemoth of extravagance, surrounded by sumptuous gardens that blend Italian and French influences, and that houses a rococo music room, a Chinese room and bathrooms covered in marble and silver plates! It is not surprising that the villa now houses a museum of European decorative arts! The second, owned by the wealthy Ringling family, overlooks Sarasota Bay from the top of its 60-meter long terrace. Courtyards paved with marble, onyx floors, mahogany marquetry... nothing is too beautiful for the magnates of the time. It was also at this time that Downtown Miami acquired its first skyscrapers: the Freedom Tower, which was also inspired by the Giralda in Seville, and the Ingraham Tower, which combines neoclassical and Renaissance motifs and is famous for its ceilings covered with gold leaf.
Art Deco power
You may not have known it, but Miami Beach has the largest concentration of Art Deco buildings in the world! While in Europe, Art Deco seeks to break with the exuberance of historicism, advocating clean and simple lines, in Florida, it will be tinged with a certain amount of fantasy. This style was called Tropical Deco. It is not uncommon to see frieze, palmette, herringbone or ziggurat motifs of Mayan, Aztec or Egyptian inspiration and even typically Floridian pink flamingos on the facades! Then this decorative richness will give way to a more refined style whose lines are witnesses of a new form of modernity. This is the advent of the Streamline Moderne, sometimes known as the nautical style, which highlights the new construction materials: steel, chrome, glass brick and of course, concrete. The porthole window became very popular. Fascinating witness of these rich 30's and 40's, this Art Deco heritage was nevertheless neglected for a long time. But in the 70's, Barbara Capitman launched a great preservation campaign which allowed the protection of nearly 800 buildings. In the 1980s, Art Deco came back to the forefront under the impetus of the artist Leonard Horowitz. Originally, the buildings were white or of very light colors, the more pronounced tones being reserved for ornaments. An aesthetic bias as much as an economic constraint. Passionate about this artistic trend, Horowitz decided to highlight it by repainting the facades of 150 buildings with the brightest and most brilliant colors. The Deco Dazzle, as its creator called it, transformed the face of South Beach. To admire the different evolutions of this style, go to Ocean Drive where masterpieces such as the Park Central, Avalon and Beacon buildings, the Carlyle, Cardozo and Cavalier hotels, not to mention the Beach Patrol Station, are scattered around. But don't let this Art Deco whirlwind make you miss the other faces of modernity! Florida Southern College is the work of the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Having been given carte blanche to design the campus, the master was able to give free rein to his organic architecture. Don't miss the Annie Pfeiffer Chapel and its spectacular tower, which blends harmoniously into the environment.
Contemporary Frenzy
Florida, a leading tourist destination, is subject to unprecedented real estate speculation, which, since the 1950s, has given rise to flashy resorts and beach resorts with sometimes questionable architectural qualities. In Miami Beach, the Fontainebleau Hotel, a free and flashy reinterpretation of a French-style castle by Morris Lapidus, is the most striking example. Ever higher, ever flashier, this could be the credo of the highway architecture that is also developing. Lined with dazzling neon lights and buildings that compete in stylistic and formal incongruity, the highways are transformed into a somewhat confusing architectural show. The visitor can only be confused in Orlando, a city of all kinds of madness, multiplying theme parks of all kinds. This is where Walt Disney imagined Disney World, the largest theme park in the world. Surprisingly, it was the famous architect Arata Isozaki who designed the Team Disney Building, all in geometric shapes and optical illusions! In parallel, Walt Disney imagined Epcot (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow). To build this experimental city, 11,000 hectares of swamp had to be drained, 54 million tons of earth had to be excavated and 16,000 tons of steel had to be brought in for the superstructures. At the time, with 80,000 solar cells on its roof, Epcot was the largest privately owned solar park in the world. The 80s and 90s were also a period of transformation for Miami, whose Downtown District was redesigned by the greatest architects. Ieoh Mig Pei realized the Miami Tower, while the great agency Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed the First Union Financial Center. But it is a local agency, the now famous Arquitectonica, which will make a lot of talk with its bold and colorful achievements as the Miracle Center Mall in Coral Gables and especially its three luxurious apartment towers called Palace, Imperial and Atlantis, the latter being famous for its opening in the facade that hides palm trees and Jacuzzis! In the 90s, while everywhere is growing towers and uniform buildings, the developer Craig Robbins decided to transform Miami. It is to him that we owe the Design District and it is also to him that we owe the famous contemporary art fair Art Basel, which always attracts in its wake the biggest names in architecture. After Elastika, a fluid work of art designed to connect the old and new spaces of the Moore Building, Zaha Hadid designed the One Thousand Museum with a glass façade set on a curved exoskeleton made of 5,000 pieces of reinforced concrete and fiberglass. The famous Swiss architectural duo Herzog & de Meuron revolutionized parking garage architecture with their 1111 Lincoln Road garage, a 7-story structure of thin concrete slabs on irregularly placed triangular pillars of varying thicknesses, creating dynamism and lightness. The New Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), whose pilings are extended into columns supporting a superb canopy, is another example. Frank Gehry abandoned his exuberant curves to create the very sober New World Center, a large rectangular volume combining glass and white cladding, which blends in perfectly with the Art Deco heritage of Miami Beach. Rem Koolhaas also left his mark in Miami with the Faena Forum and elegant towers in the Park Grove complex in Coconut Grove. As for Renzo Piano, it is in North Beach that he imagined his Eighty Seven Park tower with its superb private gardens. A fascinating list to which will soon be added the names of Bjarke Ingels and Norman Foster. Miami has not finished transforming itself!
