Miami Design Preservation League Walking Tour Guide Training School

Description

Turn Your Interest in Art Deco Architecture Into Expertise. Are you an Art Deco architecture buff, but not quite sure how Modern Streamline design came about or where the form aspect of eyebrow windows leaves off and their function begins? Why not ramp up your passing interest in "those cute little Art Deco hotels" that pepper Miami Beach's Historic District to a tour guide's level of competency by taking the Miami Design Preservation League's Walking Tour Guide Training Course? This three-day course (on three consecutive weekends) covers the full lifespan of the Art Deco District, from the birth of Miami Beach itself to present day. You'll learn how the founding fathers pumped in millions of yards of sand to beef up the three-block-wide island to its current dimensions and actually imported the coconut palms, sea grape trees and other plantings that most residents and visitors figure were already here. The $40 course explores the facades and interiors of many of the district's iconic buildings?from the Hotel Victor to the 10th Street Ocean Auditorium, the only building in South Beach located on the beach side of Ocean Drive?and the design concepts employed in both their original construction and renovation. The course, which includes lunch all three days, also examines how the area's present-day Art Deco design contrasts with that of the 1920s and '30s, including, for example, how today's building facades incorporate pastel colors versus the solid-white building fronts of the original era. To register for a Miami Design Preservation League Walking Tour Guide Training Course?either for personal edification or to become an MDPL Tour Guide?email amy@MDPL.org.