1614-12 Various Miami Beach mh LEONARD HOROWITZ DIES; 05/07/1989
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1989, The Miami Herald
DATE: Sunday, May 7, 1989 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: IB LENGTH: 76 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: Leonard HOROWITZ
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: BETH DUNLOP Herald Architecture Critic
LEONARD HOROWITZ DIES;
HIS PALETTE OF PASTELS
TRANSFORMED S. BEACH
Leonard Horowitz, the industrial designer who picked up a paintbrush and
single-handedly began the transformation of Miami Beach's Art Deco District
into a pastel playground, died Friday of complications arising from AIDS.
He painted buildings the colors of tropical sherbets, of the summer sky
at sunset, highlighting architectural details that had long been obscured
under thick slathers of beige paint. And in so doing, he began to show the
world what the Art Deco District could be -- capricious and colorful.
It was an image the world was ready to see: as the settings for Miami
Vice, as the backdrop for thousands of fashion photographs. At recent count,
as many as 150 Art Deco buildings in Miami Beach sparkle in hues of peach and
periwinkle, purple and pink -- and as many as half of those are Mr. Horowitz's
designs.
Mr. Horowitz, 43, saw the potential of the Art Deco District when few
others could. Along with Barbara Capitman, he co-founded the Miami Design
Preservation League in 1976.
"Really, he taught me what i know about Art Deco, " said Capitman. "He was
my greatest ally. Instinctively, he felt and did the right thing; he had a
vast amount of intuitive knowledge. "
The paint is proof of that: Back in 1980 or so, the Art Deco District
spoke only to those who looked hard past the blah colors and cracked stucco.
Mr. Horowitz sat on the beach staring at Ocean Drive, looked at his palette
and concocted a scheme for one block of Washington Avenue that made the
buildings look like confections.
It stuck.
Soon, Friedman's Bakery -- now a clothing shop and painted much more
austerely -- appeared on the cover of Progressive Architecture, earning
national acclaim. The world-renowned architect Philip Johnson, on a trip to
Miami, liked it so much he requested a meeting with Mr. Horowitz.
"He had an unerring sense of color, " said Capitman.
Mr. Horowitz was born in New York, and his early memories revolve around
evenings at Radio City Music Hall, a shrine of Art Deco, with its combination
of precision and flamboyance in both architecture and entertainment. His
father wished him to go into the automobile business, and Mr. Horowitz even
made a stab at business college but soon switched to industrial design, then
art.
In the 1960s, he and a friend opened a design firm on Park Avenue and
devised one of the first systems of modular furniture. Later, he moved to
Miami, where his first job was as a doorman at Seacoast Towers. Socn, he had a
furniture showroom on Decorators Row.
Over the years, Mr. Horowitz continued to do interior design work. His
last major job was for the wildly successful River Club, a Washington, D.C. ,
nightspot. But the Art Deco District remained the primary draw. He was a
familiar figure around South Beach, riding a rusted orange bicycle, his laugh
carrying over the urban din, his colorful buildings his artist's canvas.
"Without Lenny, the Art Deco District would not have the same kind of
vitality, imagination and aesthetic," said developer Tony Goldman, owner of
the Park Central Hotel.
Mr. Horowitz fought incessantly to protect the historic buildings he
loved. And when he was stricken with AIDS, his partners turned to a different
kind of preservation -- this one of a human life. The Miami Design
Preservation League raised money for his care; members cooked him dinner,
drove him to doctors, sat at his bedside. In early 1988, Mr. Horowitz was
bedridden, paralyzed from the waist down. Over the following 14 months, he
regained strength, moved from a wheelchair to a walker, a walker to a cane and
became once again a familiar figure at parties and gallery openings. About a
month ago, his health deteriorated again. Even during his illness, he
continued to design Art Deco facades and more: He won first prize for an
original lamp in the 1988 Miami Style furniture competition, had an art
exhibition at the Barbara Gillman Gallery and completed the River Club.
Plans for a memorial service are pending. The Miami Design Preservation
League has established a Leonard Horowitz Memorial Fund for design research
and scholarships.
Herald staff writer Debbie Sontag contributed to this report.
KEYWORDS: HOROWITZ BIOGRAPHY OBITUARY
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