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26
i —
K L E IN ® '
IE BELL
N A PERFECT WORLD, MORRIS LAPIDUS WOULD HAVE
,/z/, designed the Fontainebleau Hotel, built dozens of major hotels,
apartments, theaters and temples around the world, and been
hailed as one of America's greatest architects.
�...,.a Instead, for years he suffered nothing but scathing criticism for his curvy,
• festooned,Busby Berkeleyesque creations.
✓` Yet paradoxically, his talents were always in international demand. So much
so that his buildings adorned landscapes from Miami Beach to New York City
For 30 years, Morris Lapidus was the most vilified architect in
r; , and the Caribbean islands. Some became world famous, including the
Fontainebleau on Miami Beach, the Summit Hotel in New York and the El
• Conquistador in Puerto Rico.
And still the critics remained relentless.
.i. One said that Lapidus was talented but pandering cynically to the cheapest
America.Now, at 91, he's being acclaimed by a new generation.
tastes.Another accused the architect of being brash, clownish and a contriver
of vulgar buildings.Another suggested that a person had to be blind to appre-
ciate Lapidus'work.
Years of being broadsided finally forced Lapidus to throw up his arms in sur-
f -j
render,and he retired,unhappily,in 1984.
•;
The look of Miami Beach's Fontainebleau Hotel,designed by Morris Lapidus in the early'50s,was so distinctive that until 1978 it did not have a sign.
27
-Elie profession had not been career, because I fell in love with
• good to me,"he says today."1 threw ' - architecture," he recalls.
out all my work, my plans, my pit- BORNIN ODESSA. UKRAINIsland
.' E IN
tures, 1902,Lapidus arrived at Ellis
[td
As discouraged as he claims to ? ' y` 1-***%.411...
Ni� ' with his parents at the age of 7
have been,Lapidus didn't retire to a } ; .4 s c 1r/ . •...• C months. His love of lines could be
life of early-bird specials and Satur- ` ,t* .;,A �; i' traced to his Brooklyn childhood.
do-cnight entertainment at the con- ` �'� when he was always drawing and
do clubhouse. [ e „r _� i4 • ' K:..,,. tJ sketching.But his creativity did not
He continued to travel extensively (' �i ,ed i ii \\1,1,- really bloom until several years af-
with his wife, Beatrice, and. tom- i i l �, �+ ',!uf !t,-� �\ �'"1 < ter he completed his classical archi two of the four books he has ..'.1, � 41 { :j +���;' t , a ,,p �, -, - tectural education.
published over the last 40 years. • ? Ys•",••0 1 ',--.4,12.14,;-� Sj'• i k+1 ?h By 1927,Lapidus was earning$75
i s � week with a New York firm and
THEN, IN THE LATE 1980s, ANS •'-• c�►• I t /supplementing his income with
astonishing reappraisal of Lapidus' ml q • -y i\_l� t - - _ , If night and weekend work. His ambi-
work took place. .., -,"' .. h` iso 1:,:. tion was partly fueled by his desire
European students became en- —
-•y= -Y to get married.
thralled with his architecture. ``. r.t 1 .� . ` •:,,,------,..-._
"1'd been going for
American students picked up on the �. - r'-' r 1 1 r r four oi I wouldn't withBeatriceget mar-
,enthusiasm and began requesting r. r vied until years,I made at least $et m a
tours of the Fontainebleau(now the r.. year," he explains.
Hilton-Fontainebleau). Suddenly, �' `-' Photos courtesy of Morris Lapid,,.. Still,when his bosses offered him
the architect's work was being rote a job designing retail stores for
grated in various college courses. - $5,000, Lapidus turned it down.
The Lapidus revival reached full -'I'd given up being an actor and
bloom when Martina Duttmann,the scenic designer,but i wasn't going to
Sarchitecture publishingpeditor a prominent 9 give up architecture." he says.
himiss rmisi house, contactedoabo -� He had a change of heart when the
for permission to write a book He
was doubled to$10.000.
about his work.When he agreed,she •
. "Beatrice and I got married. we
flew to New York to collect dozens ,r, ' • hada car, we even had a servant. I
of albums of photographs, Alan,
that Lap- was doing very well."Lapidus says.
idus' architectason, Alan, had been "I remained a store architect for
safeguarding. The material docu- 22 years. At first it was a tieithen-
men[ed decades of creativity and dous challenge because stores in the
became the foundation of a bold — '30s were only full of cabinets and
retrospective titled Architect of the �jj e + :{A lam_ 43;4 n „ ,� cases.'
American Dream. 1J"� L r� -.T•. ..'-',:+ �. Lapidus was inspired to create de-
Once again, magazines here and �' 1 "- '`1 ��` signs that would actually lure cos-
abroad were featuring Lapidus. I! t - tourers into the stores.
This time,however,unlike the criti- A--� - :11....,..tilt
'j t y� I developed for using color.
cal reviews that had hounded him �j . n 'b`,, sweeping lines.ideasforusi drama-
t...
b -'"Tis=1
for decades, the stories praised his ,,. .. ,� d,0. �L �y ;t tic lighting— all of which is what
imagination and ingenuity.A photo- --_. -- =` '� • j!h . I'd learned from the stage.•'he says
graphic exhibit of his work opened " "The designs brought in the custom-
He
was invited and traveledor London. c: t-+ i ers, and I become a famous store
n was to lecture at Yale designer."
a University.
The Fontainebleau was show- Top:Critics belittled Lapidus•gilded"stairway to nowhere"at the FontoinebleDu,but hotel guests Macy's,Alexander's and Lerner's I
were just some the to
cased this year in the new Whitney loved its extravagance,making grand entrances to the lobby from the mezzanine.Above:The archi- benefit from the of the companies of"the •
Guide 0 h Century American FloridaAr- tedposes with o model of the Distilled Spirits Building,which he designed for the 1939 World's Fair. ther of modern merchandising."
fa-
chitecture,one of only eight Floida "My father's work in the'20s and
projects featured. Fixing page:lapidus,a world traveler,collected these masks that hang in his Miami Beath apartment. 30s—the curves,the opening up of
In the book, authorSydney tLe-he storefronts with glass and metal—
Fonta writes:el "When it opened, the as
the
hnmist highly
Hotel was buildingdin like it.It's full wonderful memo- held well as
was
e first Deco in her demonstration
Un ed States."
temmost highly tiit is one
in ries," Morris says.h
.America, hitt now it is one of the Located on the Venetian isles,the University and got hired as an un- says son Alan.
most highly praised." building stands like an aging dowa- derstudy for a play called He Who "One of the reasons was that my
Lapidus.who turned 91 this week, ger, its patterned terrazzo floors Gets Slapped. But after a couple of g •ndfather was a metalsmith. and
had finally been vindicated. gliding through a breezy, walk- weeks of sitting around waiting to o was my father. My grandfather
down lobby to a set of stately el- go on stage, i realized l hated it." worked in the early days on automo-
TODAY. THE ARCHITECT LIVES evators. The year was 1922,and the dash- bile accessories. My father learned
alone in the same Miami Beach Lapidus' apartment, overlooking ing young Lapidus didn't want to +ow to Joi glass to metal. so not
_ apartment building he designed 34 Biscayne Bay,seems frozen in time. give up the excitement of theatrical only did he aesthetically integrate
years ago.His wife of 63 years,Be- With the exception of recent family life entirely,so he pursued work as Art Deco,he knew how to build it."
atrice, died last year. photos, little has changed since he au scenic
ned ddwngre designer.
But
laafter
ter gets og worked during As a b y. summers Morris
Lapiduss
"It's in
kind of place that F.Scott moved here.
Fitzgerald would have lived in if he 'I never expected to be an archi- experience,he enrolled at Columbia father's plant.
were Jewish," says Lapidus' son tett," says Lapidus, sitting in his University to earn an architectural bide 1 hkednfnd lstet oca sed nle„gara
Richard, a Miami attorney. living room and speaking in a degree.
"1 know it's a bit overdone, but I strong, actor-trained voice that's "That was the end of my stage in ancv cars that. held vales." he
zI
-7..
78
•
explains. but the uniforms, the plates, the After the Fontainebleau, Lapidus Over the years,he has read dozens
When World War II started, Lap- ashtrays. And for a price that was designed the Eden Roc next door, of books on human history and be-
idus helped to design the search- unbelievable!He nearly bankrupted the Americana in neighboring Bal havior, leading him to write one of
q lights used on U.S. landing craft. the family, and my mother almost Harbour and dozens of apartment his own, Man's Three Million Year
) While he doesn't agree that his left him.But it was a masterwork." buildings in Miami. He was now in Odyssey.
early work was Art Deco, he ac- From the day it opened in 1954, worldwide demand, and designed "It's a scholarly book,but it never
knowledges its distinctive panache. the hotel was so instantly recog- three hotels in St.Martin,the Aruba sold very well," he says.
His style as a store designer led to nizable that,until it became the Hil- Caribbean Hotel in the Dutch Antil- Today,Morris Lapidus remains as
his being hired in 1950 to revamp ton-Fontainebleau in 1978, It bore les,the Hilton and Trelawny hotels active as ever.
plans for the Sans Souci Hotel on no name sign. Just sweeping lines in Jamaica, Loew's Paradise Island He recently cruised the Caribbean
Miami Beach, which was being de- and curves and "cheese holes and in Nassau and hotels in New York islands and the Black Sea and,at age
veloped by hotelier Ben Novak. woggles"on the decorative concrete and Washington, D.C. He also cre- 90, finished his first novel, the as-
"When Novak asked me what I walls and bow ties embedded in the ated.the Miami Beach Theater of the yet-unpublished Lilluth and the
thought about his plans,I said they lobby's marble floors(Lapidus was Performing Arts and the University Rabbi.
"I decided a long time ago that what I wanted was to please people — most people."
looked like a bunch of boxes," famous for his bow ties). And the of Miami's law library and Gusman "It's controversial,"he says."All
Lapidus recalls. "When he asked notorious curved, gilded "stairway Concert Hall. about religion and sex."
what I would do,I started sketching to nowhere" in the lobby. "Through the years I have been He is still designing buildings and
what I'd already done in the stores Like many Lapidus innovations, chastised by critics for the exuber- is currently putting his unmistak-
- sweeping lines, color, dramatic the stairway was often ridiculed as ant use of color in my designs," able mark on a "wild" new restau-
lighting,ornaments.Novak thought a piece of pointless showmanship, Lapidus notes in Architect of the rant on Lincoln Road in South Miami
it was wonderful." but Lisa Cole, the Fontainebleau's American Dream. Beach that's due to open in January.
Novak hired Lapidus as associate public-relations director, thinks it "I decided a long time ago that Lapidus says, with a playful
architect for the Sans Souci, and was a stroke of brilliance. what I wanted was to please people smile, that th'e restaurant is "my
Lapidus integrated his trademark "Morris designed the stairway so — most people. And if the critics last work,"but somehow you don't
elements into the hotel's design. that women coming down to dinner objected I would have to bear their quite believe him. Just as you get
Other Miami Beach hoteliers be- could make a grand entrance," she barbed criticism and stick to my the impression that Morris Lapidus
gan hiring Lapidus to upgrade their explains."The women would get off own convictions as long as people never quite believed his critics back
uninspired blueprints, and soon the elevator on the mezzanine floor liked what I did." in the days when he was America's
Lapidus-embellished buildings were and float down the staircase to meet To achieve that, Lapidus points most unpopular architect. 0 -•
strung out all along Collins Avenue. their husbands in the lobby. This out that he had to be more than an
The architect became known as the was the'50s,a glamorous era,and it architect. ROBERTA KLEIN has written Sun-
"hotel doctor." was important to Morris that the "I'm a student of human nature," shine's monthly Design feature for
SOME TIME AFTER THE SANS setting be dramatic." he says. the past 10 years.
Souci had been completed,Lapidus, , Nrr:
who was still living in New York „ c^ -- :;
read in the newspaper that Ben ,' P - . . ;. ;^ �:
Novak had purchased the old Fire- � + j r..
L
-*A:41
ft
estate on Miami Beach.In the ', Ff" 1 ``�
article, Novak boasted that on the ' .�° `� ` ::, I� >" ,4:. r
same site he would build the most tet,'> 4y . ' :' f {; ; .
beautiful hotel in the world.And he '
•«` ? �ez�
said Morris Lapidus would be his 4 . , ��� ` �` ' ,, aE ? t.i , •
architect. r s .....,-.......•00t ,{
Lapidus immediately phoned to +*
tell Novak he was on his way to y',9427;:'—',4'0*,;., - i
Miami Beach. But Novak told him 14r "... ` II
,
not to hurry. '' ss I ! o
"I just used your name," Novak ~`� 4 I :� ` .•F
explained."Maybe I'll let you do the !e r L s: r'", ,#
interiors." ,-
+Ks,
Novak had already put into mo- t� 1 • ; .-% A`f 1 s, 4
tion a plan to gather the country's ; ,) ,
best architects to compete for the
job. But Lapidus was persistent.
"I desperately wanted to do that
hotel,"he says."Novak kept getting ~;
astronomical bids, so I finally told l f +
him I'd do it at a fee which wasp �N.
• absolutely ridiculous for me." - •
r �' ti ,•1 ,ice
Novak accepted, and the Fon- 1� 1 Y ,t
tainebleau became the first hotel " • r +� / l L ti I e
Lapidus designed from top to bot- �' 1' '` z
t , ,
torn, inside and out. ;1 � Sl i "
"When my father designed the - �, �' * .j. 1 .
Fontainebleau," says Alan Lap- '` , I `'` •.r
idus, "he did it all himself — not • r,' , 4.
only the building and the interiors, `� ��� 'L
'` 8
• 29
r