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Florida Architecture : A Celebration
A Celebration of Architects and Architecture, 1912-2000 - presented here is the 88-year history of a professional association of architects and the work of its members. Profusely illustrated with photographs of award-winning projects, both archival and current, the book tells the story of the Florida/Caribbean region's rich architectural history. Beginning with a few native Americans who made modest imprints on the flat Florida landscape, the book ends with a new millennium and an association of architects ready to build the future. This volume chronicles the political and historical events, the styles and technology, the climate and landscape, which have shaped Florida architecture.
247 pages, Paperback
Published August 1, 2000
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May 20, 2025
To be honest, when I picked up this book, I thought it would focus a lot more just on Floridian architecture and not specifically the Florida Association of Architecture, so I briefly skimmed over those sections. However, the pure history parts I found very enjoyable to read along with the many specific examples the book provided to illustrate the development and different movements in Florida architecture. As a timeline of that progression, the book is at its most interesting.
One can definitely draw some interesting ideas about where Florida architecture should ideally be drawing from going forward, with both its strong Mediterranean influences on the coastal regions and its pioneer cracker home "vernacular" styles in the interior. But, above all, it truly highlights how much rich tradition and aesthetics we lost with the arrival of modernism. To quote the book: "The Second World War changed everything. It was as if the past had been erased and a new order was taking form." If one thinks that there was any beauty in the past, then that quote should read as nothing but entirely tragic for anyone with a heart. Pages after pages follow of the descent away from beautiful Spanish haciendas and French verandas into soulless modernist white boxes masquerading as homes in the 60s and then the "return to tradition" (an enormous stretch to call it that) of the post-modern buildings. One doesn't know whether to laugh or cry when the book compares Miami's Fontainebleau to a French Chateau, that's just how far Floridian architecture has fallen. Our only hope is that the next generation becomes so disillusioned with the false promises of modernity that they choose to return to truth, goodness, and beauty and restore this naturally beautiful state to the societal beauty it once had. (None of that is the book's fault of course, and I can only give them a good review for portraying that sad state of affairs with all the detail a reader could want.)
One can definitely draw some interesting ideas about where Florida architecture should ideally be drawing from going forward, with both its strong Mediterranean influences on the coastal regions and its pioneer cracker home "vernacular" styles in the interior. But, above all, it truly highlights how much rich tradition and aesthetics we lost with the arrival of modernism. To quote the book: "The Second World War changed everything. It was as if the past had been erased and a new order was taking form." If one thinks that there was any beauty in the past, then that quote should read as nothing but entirely tragic for anyone with a heart. Pages after pages follow of the descent away from beautiful Spanish haciendas and French verandas into soulless modernist white boxes masquerading as homes in the 60s and then the "return to tradition" (an enormous stretch to call it that) of the post-modern buildings. One doesn't know whether to laugh or cry when the book compares Miami's Fontainebleau to a French Chateau, that's just how far Floridian architecture has fallen. Our only hope is that the next generation becomes so disillusioned with the false promises of modernity that they choose to return to truth, goodness, and beauty and restore this naturally beautiful state to the societal beauty it once had. (None of that is the book's fault of course, and I can only give them a good review for portraying that sad state of affairs with all the detail a reader could want.)
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