Art Deco — Lectures and Seminars

Moving Art Deco Forward: Architects on Preservation and the Challenge of Development

The Miami Beach Visual Memoirs project presented video excerpts for a distinguished panel of architects and developers as part of the 2018 Art Deco Weekend celebrations in January. The topic was “Moving Art Deco Forward: Architects on Preservation and the Challenge of Development.” This video documents the event and the videos that set up the context for the discussion. The presentation included excerpts from archive interviews with architects Thorn Grafton, Kobi Karp, and Allan Shulman who were present to talk about their projects. Developers and preservationists Saul Gross and Craig Robins also had segments shown.

Miami Beach — Restaurants and Nightlife

As part of the Deco Weekend celebrations, a series of seminars about the preservation and development of South Beach were presented at the Wolfsonian-FIU. This video is an excerpt from the discussion hosted by Charles Kropke, author of the new book, South Beach: Stories of a Renaissance. The conversation focused on the development of the clubs, restaurants and hotels that came to define this new era in South Beach’s history.

Palm Beach Art Deco

This video excerpts the lecture by Sharon Koskoff, artist, author, and founding president Art Deco Society of the Palm Beaches, who spoke about the buildings of Art Deco-era architects working in Palm Beach County.

Sharon Koskoff worked closely with MDPL Founder Mrs. Barbara Baer Capitman. She founded and has led the Art Deco Society of the Palm Beaches (ADSPB), an historic preservation organization, since 1987. Koskoff is a Delray Beach-based artisst specializing in large public murals; color theory; photography, and architectural tours. A full-time mural artist, designer, and preservationist, Koskoff also is author of Art Deco of the Palm Beaches, Arcadia Publications. Born in Brooklyn, NY, she moved to Delray Beach in 1985.

Creation of the Art Deco District

“The World’s First 20th Century Historic District — How We Did It.” Highlights of a lecture by Michael Kinerk. This is the third in a series of lectures during the 2012 Art Deco Weekend celebrations on Miami Beach. Michael Kinerk is one of the founders of the Miami Design Preservation League that spearheaded the drive to preserve the architectural legacy of Miami Beach. He talks about the fight to establish the different districts that go into what we now call the Deco District. His talk is supported by historic photographs. Michael Kinerk is an author, lecturer and founding member of the Miami Design Preservation League.

 Revolutionary: Barbara Capitman and Art Deco

This video is excerpted from a seminar given during the 2012 Art Deco Weekend celebration on Miami Beach. In this segment of the discussion, Barbara Capitman’s son Andrew outlines how his mother came to take on the establishment to create the institutions that were finally able to create the largest preservation district in the country with the largest collection of designated Art Deco buildings in the world.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Florida Southern College: America’s first modern campus

This video is selected excerpts of Robin Hill’s illustrated lecture exploring Wright’s ideas of ‘Organic architecture’ through Hill’s own photographs, taken over an eight-year period from 2002-2008. He focuses on the interplay of light and shadow, the inter-connection between nature and architecture, and emphasizes the viewpoint that Florida Southern is not a peripheral Wright project but actually fundamental to the understanding of both his practice and philosophy of architecture.

Robin Hill was named 2011 Architectural Photographer of the Year by AIA Miami. His photographs have been featured in major exhibitions, including the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao. He has become well-versed in the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier, and is celebrated for his work exploring MiMo – the Mid-century Modern architecture of Miami. Hill was born in Nottingham, England, moved to Miami in 1992.