The street-corner gallery of Artcenter/South Florida is hosting a small exhibition devoted to the architect Morris Lapidus. That the show is small and even a bit lackluster is not a reflection of Lapidus, whose work and personality were larger than life and never without energy and spirit. Still, it's an important gesture in a week when, for the first time in almost half a century, the American Institute of Architects held its national convention in Miami Beach, bringing some 20,000 architects and others in design-related professions.
Lapidus, who died in 2001 at 98, gave us the Fontainebleau and the Eden Roc, which are currently enjoying a renaissance after multimillion-dollar renovations. That fact in itself should be something to talk about -- hotels somehow re-emerging as top travel destinations and playing on the still-growing reputation of their architect and his era.
In many ways, Lapidus also gave that era to Miami Beach -- a fancy-dressing, fast-talking, high-living time of big, blowzy hotels and beachfront condos, the rat-pack period. Not inappropriately, less than a year before his death, he reflected on the Charlie Rose Show, ``I said `I'm going to do it my way.' ''
The curved shell of his first major work, the Fontainebleau (1954), was actually a sleek structure influenced by the tropical modernism of Brazil and rather cutting edge, but the embellishment of the interior commanded the attention. Inside, the hotel was over the top, all pretension and cinematic glamour -- Busby Berkeley does the French chateau in Miami Beach.
Original text by the Miami Herald
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