History

Miami Beach’s development as a resort town accelerated in the early 1930s following the 1926 hurricane that destroyed much of the previous generation of buildings. The reconstruction created an unusual opportunity: an entire resort community rebuilt in the architectural idiom of a single decade, producing the visual coherence that now defines Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue. Henry Hohauser arrived in Miami Beach in the early 1930s and quickly became one of the most active architects of the rebuilding, designing dozens of hotels, apartment buildings, and commercial structures in a period of roughly a decade. His work characterized the Miami Beach variant of Streamline Moderne: white stucco, eyebrow canopies, horizontal speed lines, rooftop signs, and a human scale suited to the walk-to-the-beach resort model.

The Colony Hotel was completed in 1935 during the height of the building boom. Its Ocean Drive address gave it immediate visibility, and the rooftop neon Colony sign became a visual landmark in the nighttime streetscape. The hotel operated continuously as a tourist accommodation through the mid-twentieth century, serving the winter resort market that sustained Miami Beach’s economy. By the 1970s and 1980s, South Beach had fallen into neglect, and the Colony suffered the general decline of the neighborhood. The listing of the Miami Beach Architectural District on the National Register in 1979 was the beginning of the reversal; the subsequent advocacy of the Miami Design Preservation League brought national attention to South Beach’s architectural heritage, and the neighborhood’s revival in the late 1980s and 1990s transformed the Colony back into a landmark of the now-fashionable district.