A native of Chicago, architect Albert Anis arrived in Miami Beach, Florida, in 1926, just in time to start rebuilding the city after the devastating hurricane of the same year. Art Deco was all the rage at the time, and many of Anis’ structures reflect that trendy style. A stroll around town, particularly along Ocean Avenue and Collins Drive, provides a wonderful inventory of Anis’ enduring accomplishments. These are my favorites.

#1 Whitelaw Hotel

One of Albert Anis’ earliest buildings, the Whitelaw Hotel was completed in 1936. The three-story hotel features a strong vertical central section. Corner windows on the second and third floors provide plenty of light for those guestrooms, facing the Atlantic Ocean, reflected in the wavy lines underneath them that conjure up images of the water. The white and gray façade is a great contrast to the pastels and glitzy neon colors of other Miami Beach hotels.

 

#2 Waldorf Towers Hotel

Anis followed up the Whitelaw with the Waldorf Towers Hotel in 1937. The three-story, 43-room hotel features a whimsical white and creamsicle orange façade, with grooves in its larger decorative elements and columns. The façade curves nicely to the second side, united by powerful ledges that wrap around. Steps lead up to a terrace with a balustrade, where the creamsicle color can be found in the terrace’s awning and the placemats and seat cushions at the tables underneath it. The best feature is up top, so make sure to look at the corner, where you’ll find, above four rows of curved jalousie windows, the signature rooftop lighthouse.

 

 

 

#3 Temple Emanu-El

Anis stepped away from the Art Deco motif when he created Temple Emanu-El, the oldest Conservative congregation in the city. This impressive synagogue features a soft beige façade with multiple domes (the tallest one in the center is 10 stories high) done in turquoise blue, the exact color you can expect to see at the beaches nearby. This Jewish house of worship, designed in an exotic Byzantine and Moorish style, dates back to 1948. Modeled after the Great Synagogue in Algiers, Algeria, it can seat 1,400 people. At the main entrance, Moses’ tablets are set into the wall above a Star of David. The grillwork above the three main doors is particularly fine, and as you pass beneath it, you’ll be joining an impressive list of luminaries the synagogue has hosted, including presidents Reagan and Clinton, the Dalai Lama, and Desmond Tutu.

 

 

#4 Cadet Hotel

The putty hue of the Cadet Hotel receives a wonderful pop of color at its rounded corner, where terracotta floral and water motifs come to life in greens and purples. Built in 1941, this low-rise, 34-room hotel, with its corner entrance approached via three shallow steps, was named for the officer cadets from West Point who stayed here. During World War II, while training with the U.S. Army Air Forces, Clark Gable resided here, in a room on the second floor. Today, it’s a privately owned hotel, in the hands of, almost inexplicably, a medical doctor—a breast cancer specialist who occasionally plays the piano for guests.

 

 

 

#5 Nassau Suite Hotel

Another early Anis hotel, the Nassau Suite Hotel dates back to 1936. The slightly recessed terrace, with comfortable seating and protected by awnings and a scalloped-edge eyebrow running over and around it, provides a soft welcome. Ribbed stucco pilasters rise above the main entrance almost to the roof, where they flank a bull’s-eye decorative element. Porthole windows on the third floor of the 44-suite hotel are a nice touch.

Five Runners-Up

• Avalon Hotel (1941)
• Leslie Hotel (1937)
• Winter Haven Hotel (1939)
• Riviere Hotel (1934)
• Clevelander Hotel (1938)

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