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US Post Office E61
Miami Beach
Built in 1937 by Howard I. Cheney with renovations by the General Services Administration (1977).
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The Post Office presents a vocabulary of Modern Classical features, recalling institutional European, particularly Italian, architecture of the late 1930s. The imposing drum-shaped rotunda on an elevated base of rose marble is an important yet modestly scaled civic gesture toward Washington Avenue. The government’s resources allowed for civic gravitas and a level of detail, craftsmanship, and materials unheard of in the surrounding privately built structures of the period. In the rotunda, a central fountain, mailboxes in gold-painted metal, and a large mural by Charles Hardman depicting scenes from Florida history animate the marble-clad main space. Crowning this space, the painted ceiling suggests the dome of heaven; in the center, a sunburst radiates from the skylight through which artificial and natural light from the lantern cupola enter the rotunda.
Return to: Florida Top 100 Building Survey
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