As I glanced between the hotel patios crammed with sunglass-wearing revellers on one side of Ocean Drive to the beautifully manicured lush park on the other, I had a hard time believing Kenn, my tour guide, when he informed me that Miami’s South Beach was a slum in the mid-1970s.

But the man had lived in Miami virtually all of his 60-something years and had seen it himself.

Back in the 1970s, Kenn explained, when the grey-haired residents of South Beach (the people who gave the neighbourhood its nickname as “God’s waiting room”) had taken their seats at the great lawn chairs in the sky, the buildings were falling into disrepair, and drugs and prostitution were taking over.

Some said the only solution was to demolish the entire area, Art Deco buildings and all, and start over.

Thankfully, Art Deco lover and all-around spitfire Barbara Capitman disagreed. With the help of a few others, she founded the Miami Design Preservation League and fought to preserve South Beach’s unique Art Deco architecture.

It worked—not only have the buildings stayed up, but the entire area has now been designated a historic district. Today, South Beach has the highest concentration of Art Deco buildings anywhere in the world.

If Andy Warhol Can Do It, So Can You

When Andy Warhol came down to Miami in 1980, he called ahead to request a tour from the Miami Design Preservation League.

But these days, you don’t need to book; just show up at the Art Deco Gift Shop within 10 minutes of the scheduled departure time to buy a ticket for their 90-minute walking tours ($20).

Daily tours, all led by enthusiastic volunteers, walk you through the Art Deco, Mediterranean Revival, and Miami Modern architectural styles of the area.

If you’re more of a lone wolf, the League also offers 90-minute iPod-based self-guided tours (also $20), with commentary in English, French, Spanish or German. You can pick up the iPod and accompanying map at the Art Deco Gift Shop.

What Is “Art Deco,” Anyway?

Although the Art Deco period lasted from approximately 1925 to 1945, most of South Beach’s famous Art Deco buildings went up in the mid to late 1930’s.

Art Deco architecture often includes many distinct features:

• “A-B-A” symmetry (i.e. the building has three sections with the outside sections being identical)

• curved edges and corners

• concrete “eyebrows” (small ledges) above the windows

• terrazzo flooring

The most famous examples in South Beach include Tides South Beach hotel, Hotel Victor, and The Essex House hotel.

But South Beach has fantastic examples of other architectural styles as well.

Take Casa Casuarina, the former mansion of the late, internationally-acclaimed fashion designer Gianni Versace, now known as The Villa By Barton G. It's a classic example of a Mediterranean Revival building, and evokes an Old World image with architectural elements like rough stucco walls, clay tiled roofs, and wrought iron gates.

Farther up the beach, the Fontainebleau hotel showcases the amoeba shapes and “futuristic” jet and space age forms that epitomize the Miami Modern look.

Join the Art Deco Weekend Festival

If you happen to be in Miami in mid-January, join the tens of thousands of Art Deco lovers who flock to South Beach for the Art Deco Weekend Festival.

The three-day festival, which has been running since 1976, features dozens of events including film series, a parade of classic cars, guided tours and an antiques show. This year (January 12th to 14th) the theme is “Selling Glamour & Style.”

Highlights include: lectures describing the link between Art Deco design, advertising and marketing; a fashion show by students of the Miami University of Art and Design; and furniture exhibits by Visiona Furniture Gallery and Modernism Gallery.

An Unlikely History

One of the surprising things we learned on our tour is that, after the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941, pretty much all of South Beach was taken over by the military as a training facility.

The penthouse suite of the Tides South Beach (which, at the time, was the tallest building in the area) was used as a look-out point for spotting foreign submarines.

“The penthouse suite of a luxury hotel—not a bad way to spend the war!” Kenn joked.