Design Miami kicks off tonight with a party at Vernissage - very cool!
There is talk on Friday by Gaetono Pesce (arch/designer) -
Morris Lapidus will be mentioned.
Lapidus was a famed Miami Beach architect - very influential.
He designed The Americana (photos above) in 1956.
"Lapidus was criticized by his contemporaries for various contrived transgressions, among which were that he had built “a monument to vulgarity.” In true Lapidus form, the Americana’s design included a large glass-enclosed terrarium in the center of the lobby filled with orchids and rare fungi which angled up into a ceiling filled with “cheese-holes”... It’s said that Lapidus wanted to stock live monkeys in the terrarium, but modified his plans when owners frowned on the idea. The terrarium functioned as a miniature rain forest complete with periodic rain showers and artificial moonlight."
There is talk on Friday by Gaetono Pesce (arch/designer) -
Morris Lapidus will be mentioned.
Lapidus was a famed Miami Beach architect - very influential.
He designed The Americana (photos above) in 1956.
"Lapidus was criticized by his contemporaries for various contrived transgressions, among which were that he had built “a monument to vulgarity.” In true Lapidus form, the Americana’s design included a large glass-enclosed terrarium in the center of the lobby filled with orchids and rare fungi which angled up into a ceiling filled with “cheese-holes”... It’s said that Lapidus wanted to stock live monkeys in the terrarium, but modified his plans when owners frowned on the idea. The terrarium functioned as a miniature rain forest complete with periodic rain showers and artificial moonlight."
