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This article is about the section of Miami known as South Beach. For the neighborhood of the same name in Staten Island, New York, see South Beach, Staten Island. For the television series of this name, see South Beach (TV series).
South Beach is a section of Miami Beach, Florida that encompasses the lower 23 blocks of the island from 1st Street to 23rd Street. This area was the first section of Miami Beach to be developed starting in the 1920s, and has gone through numerous changes over the years --some man-made and some due to the forces of nature, like the hurricane of 1926 that destroyed much of the area.
In the 1930s an architectural revolution came to South Beach bringing Art Deco, Streamline, and Nautical Moderne architecture to the Beach. To this day, South Beach remains the world's largest collection of Art Deco architecture. While many of the unique Art Deco buildings, such as the New Yorker Hotel, were lost to developers in the years before 1980, the area was saved as a cohesive unit by Barbara Capitman and a group of activist who spearheaded the movement to place South Beach on the National Register of Historic Places.
Beginning in the late 1970s through the 80s, South Beach was used as a retirement community with most of its ocean-front hotels and apartment buildings filled with elderly people living on small, fixed incomes. This period also saw the introduction of the "cocaine cowboys," drug dealers who used the area as a base for their illict drug activities. The TV show Miami Vice used South Beach as a backdrop for much of its filming due to the area's raw and unique visual beauty.
In the late 1980s, a renaissance began in South Beach with an influx of the fashion industry moving into the area. Most major modeling agencies had offices in South Beach, and fashion photographers used the area as a backdrop for their photo shoots.
Today the South Beach section of Miami Beach is a major entertainment destination with hundreds of nightclubs, restaurants and ocean-front hotels. The area is popular with international tourists as well, with German being the thrid most spoken language after English and Spanish.
Lincoln Road is an open-air pedestrian mall, and is considered the premiere shopping area in South Beach.
External links
- South Beach Magazine (http://www.southbeach-usa.com/) Articles with photos on South Beach Hotels, Shopping, and Clubs.
- Lincoln Road Shopping Guide (http://www.southbeach-usa.com/shopping.htm) List of all Lincoln Road shops in the South Beach section of Miami Beach.
- South Beach Restaurants (http://www.southbeach-usa.com/restaurants/south-beach-restaurants.htm) Reviews of South Beach Restaurants.
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