Sophisticated Southern Design
Nancy Ruhling
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Miami, that sunny, sophisticated southern city, mixes art, architecture, and design, and shakes it up like a perfect pineapple vodka martini.

The result is a daring and chic design destination that offers a great starting point for a city-by-city design tour of the Sunshine State.

Although Art Basel Miami Beach, the seminal annual winter fair, has been putting the city on the international map for the last four years, the city, whose Miami Beach section is only a causeway away, has long been a mecca for fashion and style.

Perhaps the most obvious draw is the architecture, what the natives like to tout as an open-air museum of 20th-century architecture. In addition to the fabled Art Deco District in Miami Beach, the city is famous for its Mediterranean Revival and Miami Modern or so-called MiMo styles. Added to these are the contemporary buildings of the Miami Beach School of Architecture.

In the same area is the Wolfsonian-FIU museum. It's collection of American and European pieces from 1885 to 1945 includes three historic buildings from that time period. The museums mission is to interpret and explore issues in design history in relation to cultural change, industrial innovation, and the art of persuasion. Works on display include furniture, industrial-design objects, glass, ceramics, metalwork, rare books and periodicals, ephemera and works on paper, paintings, textiles, and medals.

The beach area has become home to several high-profile, high-design shops, including the recently opened Jonathan Adler location, a home-furnishings/accessories store at the Lincoln Road Mall.

Ten minutes away, across the scenic Biscayne Bay, lies the Miami Design District. This 18-block "community of design" is filled with showrooms, shops, and galleries and is fast becoming the "in" place for the home-furnishing and interior-design industry in South Florida. Holly Hunt, Knoll, Poliform, Luminaire Contract, Waterworks, Via Solferino, Ann Sacks, British Khaki, Kartell, and Poltrona Frau are among those who have hung their shingles by the sand. And JANUS et Cie, an innovative leader in outdoor furnishings, just added its name to the roster, opening up in a chic glass-house space.