1674-1 Roy France.,
'+- refIlifteSfaff Photos by JIM BIRMINGHAM
Miami Beach Hotel Architect Roy France and Sonie of His Hoti
... a vacation led to career on the Beach
Game of Golf Changei
Miami Beach's Skyline
By NIXON SMILEY
Herald Staff Writer
It all happened as a result
of a vacation, but it was
important enough to in-
fluence the appearance of
Miami Beach's skyline.
Architect Roy F. France of
Chicago and his wife went
for a train ride of several
weeks in 1931. They stopped
to play golf at places they
figured they would like.
Eventually their train rolled
into Miami. When France arrived in
Miami Beach its population
tt0't'trsr•thttrgatrepr.MYafs-only, 7,500. By 1940 the
did was to play golf at the heath had 28,000 permanent
Miami Biltmore Country residents. Miami Beach was
Club," said France, who will one of the first places in the
be 80 on Oct. 6. "I got so South to recover from the
sunburned I had to spend a depression, and Miami en -
day in bed recovering. But joyed the reflectio om a
we liked the Miami area so thriving economy.
much that we just couldn't So rapid was ho el con -
think about living in Chicago struction during s period
any longer." that the charac r of Miami
Beach's skylinpiderwent a
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Upon returning to Chica-
go, France cleaned out his complete change and the
desk, folded his drawing "little town". of the 1920's
hoard, and in 1932 settled . became a city.
permanently at Miami Beach.'
"I settled at Miami Beach
because I had been a hotel
architect in Chicago," he
said. "And I knew W. F.
Whitman Sr. of Miami
Beach, for whom I had de-
signed a hotel in Chicago."
As it happened, Whitman
was planning to build a hotel
when France appeared on
the scene. And so France got
the Job of designing it.
The Whitman Hotel, built
on the ocean between 33rd
and 34th streets, ushered in a
new trend In hotel design at
Miami Beach, when it opened
in 1935. It was the first ma-
jor hotel to be built in Dade
County during the economic
depression of the 1930s. (It
since has been torn down.)
"The Whitman proved to
be a pacesetter for the luxu-
ry hotels during the last half
of the 1930's and during the
two years of construction
prior to World War II," said
France, who still practices
architecture. "A f ter the
Whitman went up, I found
myself busy for the next
seven years."
During that time France
designed the Edgewater
Beach, Patrician, Shoremede,
Ocean Grande, Sands, White
!louse, Cadillac, National,
Sea Isle and Versailles. Ile
also designed several apart-
ment houses and private
homes.
• "Construction was at a
standstill during World War
II," said France. "The mili-
tary took over the hotels and
used them for Air Force
training schools. This saved a
lot of hotel owners from
possible bankruptcy at a
time when travel was re-
stricted and everybody w;
involved in the war effort."
France went back to wol
as soon as the war was OVE
but this time designing hote
to be built at Bal Harbour -
the Kenilworth, completed
1946, and the Sea View, con
pleted in 1947. He did tl
Saxony and Sans Souci i
1948 and 1949, and, in 195
a construction record wa
set when his 268 -room Cast
blanca was built in fiv
months and 10 days.
"It was impossible to ge
going until July 16, when th
excavation work was begun,'
said France. "The owner
wanted to open the hotel fo
that season, so the Maxwel
Co., the contractor, rushed it
to completion in time fob
opening on Dec. 24 — witt
the furnishings and landscap•
ing finished within a three.
week period."
The post-war hotels were
more luxurious and larger
than the pre-war hotels.
Rooms were larger and there
was air conditioning. Costs
went up, too.
"But, basically, hotels ar
Turn to Page 4C, Col.
Roy France at His Drawing Board
--"�-' ... first hotel started