Lectures

Melissa Wyllie, CEO & President of the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation, and Mike Cosden, Board President of the Florida Trust, will discuss the organization’s advocacy priorities and strategies for the 2024 legislative session, which will be kicking off just days before the Art Deco Weekend begins (January 9). The Florida Trust is Florida’s statewide […]

Historic places change over time. We can't stop change, but we sure can manage and direct it! This lecture will detail Florida Historic Places and provide 10 rules\/guidelines to follow in order to protect and preserve their uniqueness and historical context. these 10 rules were developed by the presenter Rick Gonzalez and will provide the […]

For more than half a century, Florida has relied on growth and sprawling development to fuel its economy. Sadly, we continue to experience the tragic consequences of this approach, which has been likened by some to a “Ponzi scheme.” Today, Florida continues to face the consequences of rapidly growing population coupled with the looming threats […]

Inspired by people he met while working on the Christo Surrounded Islands project, David Bricker found himself living aboard chasing stories here in Miami, throughout the Bahamas, and across the Atlantic. Realizing that he was living in a storybook, he wrote about and photographed his adventures. Not only is this talk historically surprising and interesting, […]

Often one story tall and built of concrete block—with a large screened-in porch, Florida room (more commonly known today as a sunroom), louvered windows, and carport—the Florida House became a popular vernacular form in South Florida after the Second World War. Not simply the result of builders copying designs by known architects like Igor Polevitzky […]

Every great civilization, from the Ancient Greeks to the Egyptians, Sumerians, and Norse had their gods, villains, and heroes. These millennia-old stories of love, violence, honor, and betrayal passed people’s beliefs about themselves to subsequent generations. They were altered through incalculable tellings to better fit changing norms and political ends, but the core messages remained. […]

Hernando D’Escalante Fontaneda was 13 years old when he survived a shipwreck in Florida in 1549. He and his brother were sailing from their home in Cartagena to be educated in Salamanca, Spain. In his memoir, Fontaneda wrote that the Calusas enslaved him rather than martyring him, like other shipwreck survivors, because he obeyed their […]

In 1933, Batista's Cuban Revolution forced Desi Arnaz and his dad to flee to Miami, where the penniless 16-year-old arrived without the ability to speak, read, or understand English. He cleaned canary cages, laid tile, and struggled to save money by sleeping in a warehouse. At St. Patrick Catholic School, Desi learned English, practiced guitar, […]