Colony Hotel - The Sign That Defines Ocean Drive

A stop on Miami Beach: Art Deco District Walk, a free self-guided tour.

That tall neon sign is probably the most photographed on Ocean Drive. Henry Hohauser designed the Colony in 1935, and to show off how modern the hotel was, he gave it two innovations: steel corner windows and a neon marquee shaped like an upside-down T carrying the hotel's name. The Colony is often called the first streamlined building on Ocean Drive. Look up at its stepped parapet, a ziggurat roofline borrowed from ancient temples, and at the thin concrete ledges over the windows. Locals call them eyebrows, and they shaded rooms from the Florida sun long before air conditioning.

Hohauser and L. Murray Dixon were the leading architects of Deco South Beach. Walk a few doors either way and compare the neighbors: racing stripes, porthole windows, terrazzo porches, each a variation on the same theme, built quickly and cheaply for middle-class tourists during the Depression. Cheap materials took their toll, and the Colony's sign had to be rebuilt in 1989.

Come back after dark, when the neon glows.

Getting here: Cross back to Ocean Drive and walk south to 736 Ocean Drive, between 7th and 8th streets.

Did you know?: The Colony has just three stories, but its soaring sign makes it look much taller, a trick Deco architects used to make small hotels stand out on a crowded street.

Photo op: From the park side of Ocean Drive, frame the Colony's sign straight on; at dusk the neon against a deep blue sky makes the classic shot.

More on Wikipedia: Ocean Drive · Henry Hohauser · Lawrence Murray Dixon

Colony Hotel - The Sign That Defines Ocean Drive

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