1674-3 Morris Lapidus a
'1
Fulfill:
.
.(11)1\)
Orve there nos a mii{t tv
signed a hotel and forgot sorni `#1iin$
ir
very important. He had to(10;fid all `.
over again. -
r.'
.
Nolo there is a ni• .
hotels with more thins :Yit•
can think of.So--others tweet's do
their designs over again. tub r= go
ahead and recoiabout hi-,n.
B 'M1 .IN
Whe Morris Lapidus a a young archi-
tect in New—roll:m 'mg a ramp or himself
as a designer of store fronts,a hotel;.:an who
liked his work asked him to submit some Ideas
for a hotel
a4
He 15orkc3 on the c sign and finally came
i up with his conception of what s botel:aliouid
4giLok lke •'.... .f!s3 ; d
10110t
. . :'�;
The men who was bttihdtuh
g te hotel said:
"Morris,I like sour stile but maybe
a didn't know that hotels these days •
ve a bathroom for each noon -not one
•`et the end of the hall on each floortr',
Lapidus says, today,"How shou'd I have
known? The only experience with hotels I
ever had was as a dramatic counselor in re-
sorts.Those hotels had one bathroom on each ,
floor and that's what I put in my plans."
So when Morris Lapidus (the accent Is
on the first syllable) designed the Fontaine-
bleau Hotel at Miami Beach a few years ago, HIS IDEAS GROW `� :t I
he remembered to provide a bathroom for
every bedroom.
And the Eden Roe, the Americana, the
Arawak in Jamaica and all the other Lspidus-
designed hostelries have a normal complement
of bathrooms. HIS VIT
RIGHT NOW LAPIDUS has not only ho- HEIGHT — Ii'8" WEIGHT — 170
tela on his mind—and his drawing board— EIS —brawn HAIR — brown,greying
but also the projected Lincoln Road Mall.
_ He's so enthusiastic about the possibilities BORN — Ods,Russia,Nov.2.5,1902
of the Mall that he bubbles over when he talks CAREER — Store designer and archlteet,
about it. later designer of hotels in
"This is going to be one of the greatest
Miami Beach, Caribbean.
tourist attractions of Miami Beach,"he claims.
"It will not be Just a place to go shop- 4
ping.It will be a promenade where people
can walk and see beautiful flowers and dents can listen to lovely piped music as they
foliage,in addition to what they will see hi stroll or pause for a rest.
the shop windows. "There will be sidewalk cafes in the con-
"It will be a place where tourists and real- tinental manner. In Europe the greatest show
i f
•
MIA. Sande.,Jen. S, 1960 •
Laiidus
II, 0 ''
' Yv'
, , „.
- ours e. , „......„.. %.
experience but :"`'..rte of his background as ,„
a store front architect
"I kno* merchandising," says Lapidus. '"
'The probe IS not to make people buy;it
is to bring#bent into an area.
'Once tI.ey are there, we know that at-
tractive merchandising — store fronts and
windows and the products in them— ,!.,,._} ,,,'
suit in a certain percentage of sal:.','
"We're going to make the '''',4e.","-
Road
`T'"Road Mail so attractive that people will
get into the habit of saying,'Let's go down
to the 41al1 for a walk."
- The 57-year-old Lapidus works at his bi •
drawing table seated in a barber's chair
head rest of which has been removed.
lie's marpcd and the father of two.e
„-.-_,,,--`0,,a...;u r> ,. ^l'w *3 4 3 T7 lder,.27-star•oldRichard,studied law,b
. '4 r4 ' , .„„tx . r7 i.,�d advertising and now is president r
n `%L.y.�a
WAI'fif,a cotjiparstivtly new Fhf radio statio
The othp son,Alan,24,is studying arc.
tecture at Columbia---his father's alma mat..• ,
' —"not because I tried to get him into the field"
but because ire likes it,"said Lapidus Sr.
u
i * * * !a
IN ADDITION to his Miami Beach office Z.i _
at 940 Lincoln Road (soon to be The Mall), * -
a.
Lapidus has an office in New York City.
He and bis wife,Bea,live in the same one.. j.
Y,....,x:.•rns4 cr nob s.::.' bedroom apar.ment at 1120 Venetian Way, . ,'.
(TIERS LOSE THEIR HAIR Miami,they cupied when they first came to
. .•. Barber's Chair Suits Lapidus Best Miami pearl aIx years ago.
Said Lapidus:
"My wife won't move into any home -
except a];,epidas-designed one.So I'm do-
TATISTICS Ing the nett best thing.I have an interest
In a 140-unit apartment house I designed
that's going up on Belle Isle and we'll
EDUCATION —New York public schools, move into it" ,,;
Columbia University. Reminiscing of his younger days in archl-
HEALTH — Good tecture,Lapidus told how he once designed a ' _
VOICE — Deep,melodious dressing room for a William K. Vanderbilt -
home on Long Island. •
HABITS — Drinks moderately,scotch and
soda "When the detail was submitted for Mr. ►
Vanderbilt's approval," related Lapidus, "he
liked It very much.Then he asked how much = 4
the room would cost.
x
on the boulevards is the people. You know, E7ght thousand dollars,'he ass told
_ [s
people just love to watch other people." "'Eight thousand dollars?' came the re-
Lapidus says he was c a 1 I e d in to de- ply. 'Nothing doing. I'm a Vanderbilt — not - it
sign the Mall not so much because of his hotel a Rockefeller.'" ,y
II / r