Lincoln Road - Morris Lapidus's Open-Air Mall

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

This shady pedestrian street has been Miami Beach's living room for a century. Developer Carl Fisher cleared a strip across the island here in 1912, and in the decades that followed Lincoln Road filled with upscale shops such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Bonwit Teller, plus Cadillac and Packard showrooms.

In the 1950s the city turned to Morris Lapidus, the architect who also designed the Fontainebleau Hotel. He closed the road to cars and reimagined it as a pedestrian mall, which opened on November 28, 1960, with gardens, fountains and playful concrete shade shelters you can still walk under. Look for the swooping curves and cut-out shapes that make his work classic MiMo. The mall joined the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.

Nearby you will spot the 1930s Lincoln Theatre facade, and one block north on 17th Street, Frank Gehry's New World Center concert hall, known for free outdoor screenings on its wall. With more than 200 shops and restaurants, this is the best place on the walk for a cold drink.

Getting here: Continue north on Collins to Lincoln Road, turn left onto the pedestrian mall and walk west about three blocks to Pennsylvania Avenue.

Did you know?: At its 1960 opening, the redesigned street billed itself as the most magnificent mall in all of the Americas.

Photo op: Stand beneath one of Lapidus's concrete shade shelters and shoot down the palm-lined mall.

More on Wikipedia: Lincoln Road · Morris Lapidus · Carl G. Fisher · New World Center

Lincoln Road - Morris Lapidus's Open-Air Mall

Stops on this tour