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The Fontainebleau and the Eden Roc. The Deauville
and the Carillon. The Bel Aire and the
Casablanca. The names of Miami’s great resort
hotels evoke a time when nymphs in mink bikinis
frolicked on Miami Beach, when Frank Sinatra,
Jackie Gleason, and Lucille Ball were regulars in
local nightclubs, and when thousands of
newly-minted middle-class Americans flocked to
South Florida to enjoy themselves after enduring
nearly two decades of hard times. The post-World War
II period was a time of optimism, faith in
technology, and a belief that the future would bring
ever improving conditions for all. These beliefs
were made manifest in the period’s exuberant
architecture, and nowhere more than in the postwar
style known as Miami Modern, or MiMo.
MiMo’s Jetsons-style motifs -- boomerangs, fins,
kidney-bean shapes - paired with an over-the-top
Hollywood sensibility and a tropical environment to
create a style that was modern, luxe, and local all
at the same time. The great MiMo architect Morris
Lapidus, reviled by the International
Style-worshipping architectural establishment of the
time, called his autobiography “Too Much is Never
Enough” -- and put this credo into practice with
projects like the Fontainebleau, whose lobby
featured a terrarium with live alligators, bellboys
clad in purple and gold braid, and the infamous
“stairway to nowhere,” built solely to provide
guests with way to make a grand entrance in their
evening clothes. If you’re the sort that
favors grand entrances -- and views the living room
as a stage set for your fabulousness -- the MiMo is
the style for you.
MiMo interiors are modern -- but with as many,
twists, turns, and flourishes as can be crammed into
them. They should feature curving, sweeping lines,
theatrical lighting effects, lots of color and
drama, and, if possible, multiple floor levels
(i.e., the classic “sunken living room”). Morris
Lapidus devised a large catalogue of design
“tricks” that became the lingua franca of fifties
and sixties popular architecture: curved walls,
circular or amoeba-shaped cutouts (he called them “cheeseholes”),
metal rods with no structural purpose, and purely
decorative mirrored dividers.
Elements of MiMo Style
Floors can be tile, highly polished stone, or
terrazzo, perhaps topped with a curvilinear rug.
Low-pile wall to wall carpet is another good choice,
preferably in a vibrant color like electric blue or
burnt orange (or even in a curvy, busy pattern).
Furniture should be midcentury modern, but avoid
Miesian austerity: you want kidney- shaped coffee
tables, curved sofas, anodyzed aluminum pieces in
gold and copper tones, colors like avocado and
eggplant, and glamourous touches like white fur
throws and tiled mosaic murals.
In the bedroom, a round bed with white-on-white
linens would work brilliantly, along with metallic
accents, mirrors, and rattan or bamboo room divider
screens. In any MiMo room, tropical elements
add the unmistakable Miami touch, transforming mere
kitsch into resort glamour: potted palms, louvered
windows, a salt water aquarium, tropical and animal
prints, and neon. When you look your creation over
and say to yourself, “Enough,” go out buy two
more accessories, then come home and fix yourself a
champagne cocktail.
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