The Tides
When it opened in 1936, this eleven-storey tower was the tallest building on Miami Beach — Ocean Drive’s flagship of Streamline Moderne, designed by L. Murray Dixon.
At a glance
The Tides stands at 1220 Ocean Drive, taller and broader than its neighbours along the strip. Designed by L. Murray Dixon and completed in 1936, it rose eleven storeys — about 49 metres — making it the tallest edifice in Miami Beach at the time and one of the tallest in Florida. Where most of South Beach is built to a domestic three or four floors, The Tides was conceived as a landmark, its smooth white front and central tower commanding the seafront. It has been renovated several times and today operates as a hotel and residence.
Key facts
- Completed: 1936
- Architect: L. Murray Dixon
- Style: Streamline Moderne (Art Deco)
- Height: 11 storeys, about 49 m — tallest in Miami Beach when built
- Address: 1220 Ocean Drive, Miami Beach, Florida 33139, USA
- GPS: 25.783084, -80.130391 — Open in Google Maps
- Today: Hotel and residences
History
L. Murray Dixon was one of the most prolific architects of 1930s Miami Beach, responsible for dozens of the hotels that define the district. The Tides was among his most ambitious: a deliberate high point on Ocean Drive, completed in 1936 as the resort boomed. Its scale set it apart from the smaller Deco hotels going up around it.
Like much of the district, the building passed through decline and revival. It was renovated in 1997 during the South Beach renaissance and has changed hands and operators several times since, at one point part of the Island Outpost group of boutique hotels. Throughout, its silhouette has remained the anchor of the central seafront.
What you see
The Tides is Streamline Moderne at full height: a smooth, pale tower with horizontal banding, a stepped central crown and the rounded, aerodynamic lines the style borrowed from ocean liners and aircraft. Set back slightly behind the Ocean Drive palms, it reads as the calm vertical accent in a row of lower, busier façades.
Inside, the lobby has been reworked across successive renovations, but the building’s value is in its massing and its place in the streetscape — the tall white marker that lets you find this stretch of Ocean Drive from a distance.
Practical information
- Access: A working hotel; the façade is seen from Ocean Drive, and the bar and terrace are open to non-guests
- Best view: From Lummus Park, across Ocean Drive, where the full height is visible
- Best light: Morning sun from the Atlantic lights the front directly
- Time needed: 10–15 minutes as part of an Ocean Drive walk
Getting there
The Tides is in the middle of Ocean Drive, between 12th and 13th Streets, in the South Beach historic district. It is a short walk from the Art Deco welcome centre and from the Washington Avenue bus routes that cross from downtown Miami. The whole strip is best covered on foot.
Nearby
- Miami Beach Architectural District — the surrounding Art Deco streetscape
- Lummus Park and the Atlantic beach, directly across Ocean Drive
- The Wolfsonian–FIU design museum, a short walk west
Sources
- Miami Design Preservation League — Art Deco district documentation
- City of Miami Beach — historic preservation records
- National Register of Historic Places — Miami Beach Architectural District nomination
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