DK Travel : Miami : Tropical Deco Features

Top 10 Tropical Deco Features

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1. Tropical Motifs

These include Florida palms and panthers, orchids and alligators, but especially birds, such as flamingos and cranes.
2. Ice-Cream Colors

Actually, most Deco buildings here were originally white, with a bit of painted trim; the present-day rich pastel palette “Deco Dazzle” was the innovation of Miami designer and Capitman collaborator Leonard Horowitz in the 1980s.
3. Nautical Features

What better way to remind visitors of the ocean and its pleasures than with portholes and ship-railings? Some of the buildings resemble beached liners.
4. Curves and Lines

This suggestion of speed is the essence of the Streamline Moderne style – it is an implicit appreciation of the power of technology.
5. Stucco Bas-Relief Friezes

These sculptural bands offered designers endless possibilities for a wonderful mix of ancient and modern motifs and themes.
6. Stylized, Geometric Patterning

This was a nod to the extreme modernity of Cubism, as well as, again, the power and precision of technology, espoused by Bauhaus precepts.
7. Fantasy Towers

Many Deco buildings try to give the viewer a sense of something mythical – towers that speak of far shores or exalted visions – and that effectively announce the hotel’s name, as well.
8. Neon

Used mostly for outlining architectural elements, neon lighting, in a glamorous range of colors, came into its own with Tropical Deco.
9. Chrome

What touch more perfectly says “modern” than a cool, incorruptible silver streak? Chrome is used as detailing on and within many buildings.
10. Glass Blocks

Used in the construction of many Deco walls, the glass blocks give a sense of light and lightness in a part of the country where indoor-outdoor living is year-round.