1980s Miami: How Art Deco and Miami Vice Built a Lasting Tourism Empire
Miami's 1980s transformation from crime-plagued backwater to global glamour hub started with architecture and exploded via television. On May 14, 1979, the Miami Beach Art Deco Historic District—home to over 800 preserved buildings—landed on the National Register of Historic Places, the first 20th-century urban district so honored. Activist Barbara Baer Capitman and the Miami Design Preservation League fought demolition, unlocking tax breaks and loans that sparked restorations along Ocean Drive. […]

