American Notes Preservation

Seductive and streamlined, painted with a pastel palette of flamingo pinks, pale yellows and cool blues, the tropical art deco buildings of Miami Beach delight the eye and invite the viewer to contemplate a jazzier age, a futuristic past. For years, preservationists fought developers who thought it necessary to demolish the city's past in order to define its future. A step toward protecting those confectionary creations was taken on July 9, when the city commission created two historic districts encompassing the greatest concentration of art deco buildings along the south beach section, a once glitzy tourist mecca that has fallen on hard times. The ordinance requires a six-month waiting period for a permit to raze any building within the area, thereby giving preservationists time to find a way to save them.