Miami Beach 2

Walking around the South Beach area, there are numerous very beautiful Art Deco buildings. Some are very well preserved, others not so much. One sultry August morning I found myself walking from 17th St. and Collins Av. to 10th St. and Ocean Dr. There's a Meetup group called Miami Beach Volleyball Group dedicated to organizing Saturday morning beach volleyball games that anyone can join in. I wanted to play beach volleyball, so I was making my way there. 

Anyway, on my way there I enjoyed seeing a variety of these buildings. I've been in this area always in the afternoon, evening or night. At all of those hours, Collins Ave. along this stretch is quite crowded. It's difficult or impossible to get good shots of the buildings. On a Saturday morning however, it's fairly quiet. The calm and quiet lends itself very well to enjoyment of architecture. I took several pictures of buildings, but I'm going to share one interesting building here pointing out some of its Art Deco features.

The building I'm referring to is located at 1200 Collins Ave. In its current incarnation it appears as The Marlin Hotel -- a small boutique hotel that appears to be quite highly rated and houses an Italian restaurant (Osteria del Teatro) that appears to be highly rated as well.  Here's one of the better shots that I took:

This shot doesn't capture every important architectural detail. But here are a few features that make it interesting:

1. Very well preserved.
2. Pastel colors.
3. Eyebrows: on the first floor they extend all the way around. On the other two floors, only partially.
4. Rounded corners (the southeast corner is visible, but apparently there is another corner that is rounded as well.
5. Windows on rounded corners.
6. Some features appear in threes like the windows in the center. Symmetrical.
7. Right at the top of the building there is a decorated horizontal band called a "cornice" in architecture.
8. Central bay with a "dome" and a flagpole at the top.

Neon sign announcing the hotel.

Here's another photo, this one taken from the hotel's website that shows more of the building:

I'm guessing this one was taken at either sunrise or sunset because the lighting is gorgeous. However, it also makes the facade a little more yellow that it is. In that respect, my photo is better.