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 […]

This lively presentation examines the two weeks the Beatles spent in the potboiler that was 1964 Florida; longer than anywhere else in North America that watershed year. South Florida is center stage; it's the subject of Kealing's new book, "Good Day Sunshine State, How the Beatles Rocked Florida." It will also address the tragedy of […]

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 […]

Based on her just-published memoir, Dwell Time, conservator Rosa Lowinger discusses preserving modern tropical buildings in Miami and Havana. From mosaics, murals, and decorative cast stone to terracotta and ironwork, Lowinger will show how repairing the key elements of 20th-century tropical architecture serves as a metaphor for personal healing after loss, particularly the loss of one's […]

Postwar photographers such as Ezra Stoller in New York and Julius Shulman in Southern California began working closely with mid-century architects, capturing the clean lines of modern buildings, and presenting them as progressive forms for ideal living enhanced by compelling landscapes and climates. Women photographers like Dorothea Lange and Berenice Abbott were also gaining attention […]

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, […]

When Walt Disney realized cheap tourist traps were enveloping Disneyland, he began a nationwide search for enough land to hold every dream he could imagine. What happened next would require a heightened degree of CIA-level secrecy for Disney's undercover team, which launched a misinformation campaign that included dummy corporations and secret transactions. However, when a […]

The City of Opa-locka is Miami-Dade County's eighth oldest municipality, founded in 1926 by American aviator and inventor Glenn Curtiss. A city built in the theme of Arabian Nights and with an architectural motif known today as Moorish Revival, a new movement has taken hold to identify, resurrect, and preserve landmarks from the past through […]

The goals of historic preservation are often at odds with efforts to protect properties from climate change. While preservation encourages maintaining a property’s historic appearance, climate change adaptation often requires change, sometimes radical change, to maintain the safety of a building and its occupants. As the impacts of flooding and intense storms are increasing in […]