1674-3 Norman Giller12 of 127, 8 Terms
mh AT 83, ARCHITECT HAS LEFT HIS MIMO MARK ON CITY 11/18/2001
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 2001, The Miami Herald
DATE: Sunday, November 18, 2001
SECTION: Neighbors BC
ILLUSTRATION: photo: Norman Giller (A)
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: BY MICHAEL W. SASSER,
MEMO: MIAMI BEACH / SUNDAY PROFILE
EDITION: Final
PAGE: 4MB LENGTH: 109 lines
Special to The Herald
AT 83, ARCHITECT HAS LEFT HIS MIMO MARK ON CITY
Miami Beach was a very different place when Norman M. Giller arrived as a
youth in 1929.
"Lincoln Road was the north end of Miami Beach," Giller, 83, recalls.
"Later on, I remember 41st Street became the north end of Miami Beach. Now
I'm not sure what 'North Beach' is considered. There have been a whole lot of
changes."
Giller, whose family moved to Miami Beach when he was 11 years old, has had
a hand in many of those changes in the past seven decades. The well-known
architect's work has been increasingly lauded as recognition for the whimsical
Miami Modern - or MiMo - style grows. Although, had MiMo never achieved broad
recognition, Giller's work would still have left an indelible mark on
Miami -Dade County.
"We've designed more than 11,000 buildings over the past 50 years,"
Giller said. " I figured out once that we had designed 77 building types
homes and apartment buildings, schools, hospitals and airports."
It was, however, in the 1940s -'60s that Giller designed the local buildings
that are familiar today. The values, optimism and experimental nature in
post -World War II America were captured in Giller's work in the Miami Modern
era. A post-war descendant of Art Deco, MiMo featured boomerangs, bean poles,
cheese -hole masonry and eye -grabbing roof designs, yet was also sleek and
elegant and featured daring angles, lines and glass. Examples of MiMo designs
include the Fontainebleau Hilton, the Eden Roc and Carillon hotels.
Giller said he had no sense of defining an architectural movement at the
time.
"When I was designing, I wasn't designing within a movement per se," he
said. " I was just designing contemporary architecture, using whatever the
technology was at that time, utilizing the different materials that came onto
the market, and trying to incorporate those materials into the design of the
building."
Giller was honored at the Norman M. Giller FAIA Luncheon at the Eden Roc
Hotel, 4525 Collins Ave., on Monday. MiamiModern Architecture - A Photography
Exhibition continues through Dec. 16 at the Seymour, the new home of the Miami
Beach Community Development Corp. Both events are part of Design +
Architecture 2001.
"It makes you feel very humble, very honored that other people recognize
what you are doing," Giller said. "We just keep plugging along."
A Jacksonville native, Giller is proud both of his roots and his life in
Miami Beach.
"I'm a real Florida cracker," he said. Giller grew up south of Fifth
Street in Miami Beach. He attended Ida M. Fisher, then on 14th Street - a
junior and senior high school'in one. In the llth grade, Giller found his
calling.
" I had a very good teacher who got me very interested in architecture, and
from that point on, I knew it was what I wanted to do," Giller said.
Giller explored his burgeoning interest later as an assistant public works
officer in the U.S. Navy, and graduated from the University of Florida
simultaneously. He designed U.S. installations while in the military, and
later assisted as a professional architect in the development of the first
"clean room," where early U.S. missiles were assembled, as well as housing
for some of the nation's first astronauts.
The decision to return to Miami Beach after his military service was easy
for Giller. "It is my home," he said. "What nicer place in the world is
there to be?"
His return coincided with the post-war boom and Giller was much in demand.
He designed the Carillon Hotel, built in 1957, which was one of North Beach's
first high-rise hotels. The Carillon had cabanas on one side, a ballroom and
dining room on the other, and four fronts, complete with trademark, folded
concrete vertical elements. The building was designed to be appreciated from
every direction, including the ocean.
Giller also designed the first two-story motel on the beach, ultimately the
most prolific hotel type of the area. At the time, one-story motor courts were
common along highways between cities, but not seaside. The area was just being
opened for development after the completion of the bridge between Bal Harbour
and Haulover, when a client asked Giller whether he thought a two-story motel
would be profitable on the ocean, and if people would be willing to walk up to
the second floor with their luggage.
"I told him, 'With the ocean as your backyard, I would gamble that people
would walk up the stairs,' " Giller recalled. So, Giller designed the Ocean
Palm, between 158th and 159th Streets on Collins Avenue, in what was then a
cutting-edge style. The design became a prototype for the motels that would
dominate the oceanside for a time in Sunny Isles Beach and South Florida, and
around the country as well.
Today Giller, who was also one of the founders of Miami Beach's Design
Review Board, says he would like to see some of his MiMo structures preserved
as the South Florida waterfront - particularly in Sunny Isles Beach -
undergoes dramatic redevelopment.
Giller's favorites include the Thunderbird, the Ocean Palm and the
Carillon. Of the latter's future, he said he is uncertain.
"Unfortunately I don't know what's happening to (The Carillon] now," he
said. "A lot of features in the tower really should be salvaged."
Today, Giller said he maintains a "moderate" practice, and recently
became a great-grandfather.
The architect's appreciation for Miami Beach remains a powerful motivation,
as he reflects on his contributions to the city.
"I've seen it grow, I've helped it grow and it's been great," he said.
CAPTION: C.W. GRIFFIN/HERALD STAFF MANY CHANGES: When he moved here in 1929,
'Lincoln Road was the north end of Miami Beach," says Norman Giller, with a
spade used in the groundbreaking of one of the 11,000 buildings he has
designed.
NORMAN M. GILLER
architect
* Personal: Age: 83. Renowned architect of MiMo-era buildings and first
chairman of the Miami Beach Design Review Board.
* What He Does: Still in architectural design after 50 years. Designed The
Diplomat, the Eden Roc and Carillon hotels.
* Family: Sons Ira and Brian, daughter Anita, seven grandchildren, one
great-grandchild.
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