That paved the way for the now landmark and gay owned News Cafe. The once small and utilitarian art deco hotel rooms have been expanded and updated to keep up with contemporary tourist tastes.Īdding to South Beach's renaissance, zoning laws were changed, allowing for commercial development on the first floor of the hotels along Ocean Drive. The art deco hotels that line South Beach's Ocean Drive are now highly prized by visitors who want to stay in the middle of it all.
Thanks in large part to gay designers including Gianni Versace and others, South Beach has come full circle and then some. The architectural art deco gems that put Miami Beach on the map in the 1920s and 1930s were abandoned or turned into low-rent apartments or retirement hotels. You could spend your whole vacation there and never leave the hotel grounds. Visitors preferred to stay farther north along Miami Beach where the high rise all-inclusive hotels were springing up.
Tourist tastes first began to shift in the late 1950s.
That was as recent as the late 1970s, early 1980s, she explained. 'South Beach used to be somewhere where you would go if you wanted to buy drugs, or get shot or stabbed,' said my group's guide on Miami Beach's Art Deco Walking Tour.
