Lincoln Road Mall | |
 Lincoln Road as it looked in 2008 facing east at the intersection ofAlton Road. The Regal Cinema is on the right. | |
  | |
| Location | Miami Beach, Florida |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 25°47′26″N80°8′11″W / 25.79056°N 80.13639°W /25.79056; -80.13639 |
| Built | November 28, 1960; 64 years ago (1960-11-28) (grand opening) |
| Architect | Morris Lapidus |
| NRHP reference No. | 11000287[1] |
Lincoln Road Mall is apedestrian road running east–west parallel between 16th Street and 17th Street inMiami Beach,Florida,United States. Once completely open to vehicular traffic, it now hosts apedestrian mall replete with shops, restaurants, galleries, and other businesses betweenWashington Avenue with a traffic accessible street extending east to the Atlantic Ocean and west toAlton Road with a traffic accessible street extending to Biscayne Bay.
Originally, Lincoln Road was a forest ofmangroves, as was most of Miami Beach. In 1912,Carl Fisher cleared a strip of the mangroves from the Atlantic (east) side of the island to the Biscayne Bay (west) side of the island and it eventually became the town's social center. Fisher maintained a real estate office on Lincoln Road. Over time Lincoln Road featured premium retail destinations likeBonwit Teller,Saks Fifth Avenue, and evenCadillac andPackard car dealerships.
In the 1950s Miami Beach architectMorris Lapidus, whose credits include Miami Beach'sFountainebleau andEden Roc hotels, was commissioned to redesign Lincoln Road. Lapidus' design for Lincoln Road, complete with gardens, fountains, shelters and an amphitheater, reflected theMiami Modern Architecture, or "MiMo", style that Lapidus pioneered in the 1950s. The road was closed to vehicular traffic and became one of the nation's early pedestrian malls and had its grand opening November 28, 1960. It billed itself as the "most magnificent mall in all of the Americas".[2]
Today Lincoln Road features a state-of-the-art multiplex cinema, the architecturally acclaimed1111 Lincoln Road parking garage, the acclaimedNew World Center concert hall, the offices ofViacom Latin America, as well as over 200 boutiques, local merchants, national retail stores, and fine restaurants and bars. Lincoln Road is also home to the newly restoredColony Theatre, a performing arts venue, and ArtCenter/South Florida, a collection of studios and gallery spaces for artists. Street performers entertain a constant stream of tourists and locals on Lincoln Road. It is among the most popular destinations for visitors to theSouth Beach area.[citation needed]
In 2006, the Miami Beach Preservation Board approved the closure of traffic of the west end of Lincoln mall for the purpose of extending the popular pedestrian mall west to Alton Road. In 2010, Raymond Jungles designed this additional block. Jungles' created an “urban oasis” by using eye-catching materials and biofiltration plants.[3]
In 2011, theFIUSchool of Architecture opened a sister campus to its main campus atUniversity Park, on Lincoln Road, with classroom spaces for FIU architecture, art, music and theater graduate students.[4]
On May 6, 2011, by recommendation of DOCOMOMO (Documentation and Conservation of the Modern Movement) led by architectAllan T. Shulman the thoroughfare was added to theNational Register of Historic Places asLincoln Road Mall.[5][6]
![Miami Beach Community Church, designed by Walter De Garmo[7]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aMiami_Beach_-_South_Beach_-_Lincoln_Road_Mall_05.jpg)
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Designed by the first registered architect in Miami, Walter De Garmo (whose other buildings include the Miami Beach Community Church…)