Deco Delights: Preserving Miami Beach Architecture

By Barbara Baer Capitman

Book Overview

A magnificent and inspiring book about the only Art Deco District in America by the woman who made it come alive again. The triumphs and despairs described in Capitman's text are the result of the struggle between the pressure for development and the necessity for preservation. 135 color plates.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0525483810
• ISBN13: 9780525483816
• Release Date: December 1988
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 1.13 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.5" x 11.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Essential South Beach Deco

What started as a vision of a preservationist troop, who saw beauty and opportunity in the tired ocean front Art Deco hotels, has blossomed into one of the premier Florida attractions and nightspots (its second to Orlando). This book, written 10 years after the designation of the district, by Barbara Baer Capitman co-founder of the Miami Design Preservation League (MDPL). She propelled the rebirth of South Beach. Slightly eccentric and always uncompromising Capitman led the crusade to preserve Miami Beach's historic district. She became known as the "first lady of Art Deco." Though somewhat dated this book has much value. It is the only piece of extended writing we have by Barbara Capitman who passed away in 1990. With its recent reprinting (2005) it is worth purchasing. It is the best book to nudge those memories of sitting in one of those cafes along ocean drive. The crisp photos by Steven Brooke document the colorful palette that Leonard Horowitz, the other co-founder of the MDPL, painted many of the buildings in order to call attention to their beautiful lines. And it always reminds us that it is the buildings that provide the backdrop for the action on South Beach and this is the book that brought the buildings of the Miami Beach Art Deco District to the world's notice.