1663-36 Art Deco/Preservation SUN OCT 23 1988 ED: FINAL
SECTION: AMUSEMENTS PAGE: 2K LENGTH: 23 .48" MEDIUM
ILLUST: photo: The HELEN MAR apartments
SOURCE: BETH DUNLOP Herald Architecture Writer
DATELINE:
MEMO:
CAPITMAN' S BOOK SHOWS OFF TRUE DECO DELIGHTS
Deco Delights pays splendid homage to Miami Beach' s engaging
architecture; it tells a sometimes bittersweet story with a mostly happy
ending.
Ironically enough, this new book arrives at a time when the historic
district in Miami Beach is much in the news, and for preservationists, the
news is not good. The frontispiece is a photograph of the Senator Hotel,
demolished earlier this month. The caption: "The Senator -- Symbol of the Deco
District. "
And so, Deco Delights (Dutton, $17 . 95, paperback; $29 . 95 hard cover)
also serves as a valiant reminder of the importance of documenting our
architectural treasures, for sometimes photographs are all that remain.
This is, in a way, two books in one: It is an engaging memoir by Barbara
Baer Capitman, who for the past dozen years has relentlessly worked to
transform a battered seaside neighborhood into an urban showcase, and on that
level it is rather personal.
It also displays the considerable talents of Steven Brooke, whose
powerful architectural photographs show off Miami Beach' s Art Deco buildings
at their very best. In that respect, it is universal.
The Art Deco District is a seductive place. Against steep odds --
inimical politicians, impoverished residents, uncertain economics -- it has
emerged, a charming relic of jazz-age architecture and a historic urban
neighborhood with vast appeal to the young.
With Brooke ' s dramatic pictures, it ' s easy to tell why. He spent a year
taking the 150 photographs, stalking the precise moment when the clouds moved
away, waiting sometimes for hours till the sun tilted a certain way to
highlight, as he says, "every nuance of detail. "
The photographs are both impassioned -- only someone adoring of Miami
Beach' s Art Deco could have taken them -- and strikingly straightforward.
Impressively, they let the architecture itself tell the story. There are no
tricky angles, no fish-eye lenses, just buildings aglow in the sunlight, their
pastel stucco framed by a cloudless sky.
Mostly, the photos show buildings already renovated, painted in luscious
pastels to highlight their crisp geometric and capricious detailing. Some are
"before" pictures; the unrenovated are a kind of memento of the days, less
than a decade ago, when to many, the resurgence of the Art Deco district was a
pipe dream, not a reality.
Capitman ' s well-written memoir recounts this transformation. Her text
for Deco Delights is at once quirky and brilliant, anecdotal and historical,
rambling and focused. It is fascinating, somewhat -- though in this case not
inappropriately -- self-serving, and refreshingly eccentric.
Just an example of <its eccentricity: She chose the title, Deco Delights,
from a chocolate fudge dessert served at the Cafe Cardozo while her son owned
it. "Deco Delights has now achieved a broader meaning, " she writes. "The title
of this book refers to the buildings themselves and the more manifold
pleasures of the District: the sound, fashion, life style, art, joyful events
and world renown generated here. "
Perhaps the chief annoyance of the text are the numerous misspelled
names, including Addison Mizner and Edward Villella. And yet the captions for
the photographs -- all Capitman' s work -- show a prodigious mastery of the
district ' s buildings; there is an appreciable amount of architectural
documentation here.
In the beginning, back in 1976, it was just Barbara Capitman and a
handful of others. The others have come and gone. Capitman has remained, an
inspiration to preservationists, an annoyance to politicians and an obstacle
to demolitionists.
And for all the setbacks, this book is a grand celebration of the
triumph of architecture over adversity.
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