Discover Miami's Retro Hotels and MIMO Architecture

One of the most captivating architectural styles in Greater Miami and Miami Beach is known as MiMo or Miami Modern. With a playful Space Age aesthetic and a touch of 1950s kitsch, it’s Miami’s subtropical riff on the Mid-Century Modern architecture and design movement that swept the globe after World War II. Thanks to groups like the Miami Design Preservation League, MiMo architecture has been carefully preserved.

Hallmarks Of MiMo Architecture

The MiMo architectural movement emerged in the 1950s and ‘60s in Miami, bringing a greater interplay between the indoor and outdoor features of a building. With MiMo came courtyards and catwalks, balconies and breeze blocks, cantilevered rooflines with playful acute angles, delta wing accents reminiscent of aviation and the Space Age, sweeping curved walls, bean pole columns, and cheese hole accents. MiMo architecture is playful, eccentric, even extravagant, while also adhering to a geometric aesthetic inspired by the modern art movement of the time.

MiMo was implemented in grand beachside resorts, modest mainland motels and breezy garden apartments. Today there are four distinct MiMo districts:

• Morris Lapidus/Mid-20th Century Historic District
• North Beach Resort Historic District
• MiMo Biscayne Boulevard Historic District
• North Shore & Normandy Isles historic districts

MiMo Historic Districts & Hotels

The Morris Lapidus Mid-20th Century Historic District

Morris Lapidus designed some of the most impressive and lavish examples of MiMo architecture in Miami Beach.

Fontainebleau Miami Beach

Built in 1954, Lapidus’ Fontainebleau hotel in Mid Beach features a sweeping curved façade and scalloped cheese hole cutout wall. Inside the lobby, the famous “stairway to nowhere” was designed purely for show, where women would make their grand entrance for the evening sashaying down the stairs. The black and white bowtie marble floor is another iconic Lapidus detail, playing with geometry and extravagance.

Eden Roc Miami Beach

The Eden Roc hotel was completed in 1956 with a gently folding concave façade, including two vertical panels of aquamarine perforated masonry and a dramatic smokestack rooftop reminiscent of a steam liner for nautical flair. Inside, Lapidus’ circular lobby is anchored by a central, sunken bar crowned with a sculptural chandelier, and you’ll find original columns, brass frescoed elevator doors and terrazzo floors with fleur-de-lis flourishes.

North Beach Resort Historic District

Farther up the beach on Collins Avenue, spanning 63rd to 73rd streets, the North Beach Resort Historic District is home to its own MiMo marvels.

Carillon Miami Wellness Resort

The Carillon Miami Wellness Resort is a sweeping oceanfront resort built in 1957 by architect Norman Giller with an accordion-style facade. The original clock and neon Art Deco moniker still grace the top of the tower. It was once the backdrop for a photo shoot with the first runner-up in the 1959 Miss America pageant. Today it’s a wellness resort home to the largest spa in Miami.

MiMo Biscayne Boulevard Historic District

Running along Biscayne Boulevard, from roughly 63rd to 74th streets, in an area known as the Upper East Side, another corridor of MiMo architecture has been preserved in its historic roadside motels

The Vagabond Hotel Miami

The historic Vagabond Hotel Miami has been reimagined as a hip boutique hotel with a playful poolscape. The former motel has all the hallmarks of MiMo’s Space Age aesthetic, from its kitschy neon sign to playful acute angles, delta wing accents and the interplay between indoors and outdoors with catwalks, balconies and courtyards.

New Yorker Boutique Hotel

The New Yorker Boutique Hotel has also received the boutique treatment. The two-story white concrete building has turquoise accents, catwalks, a courtyard with a pool and a curvilinear façade with the hotel’s name emblazoned in original neon.

Shalimar Motel

The Shalimar Motel’s red neon sign lures travelers along Biscayne Boulevard with its retro MiMo catwalks, breezeblocks and diagonal lines, plus budget-friendly rooms.

Sinbad Motel

The Sindbad Motel delightfully fuses the symmetry and neon lights of Art Deco design with outdoor catwalks and sharp angles typical of MiMo architecture. The motel’s name is emblazoned on its stucco façade in playful orange and pink neon bubble letters.

Normandy Shores & Normandy Isles National Register District

While MiMo is associated with the elegance and glamour of Lapidus resorts and kitschy roadside motels, the breezy garden apartments throughout Nort Shore and Normandy Isles are also a product of this architectural movement. You’ll find two-story apartment complexes with buildings mirroring one another, connected by a courtyard and outdoor catwalks. The tranquil, shady respite of the courtyard was a desirable design for Miami’s subtropical lifestyle.

To learn more about MiMo architecture, inquire about a private walking tour with the Design Preservation League or embark on a self-guided tour.