Identity Crisis: Miami Beach during Turbulent Years, 1975 – 1985
Tuesday, 10/06/2015 – 07:00 pm – 09:00 pm
Art Deco Museum
1001 Ocean Drive,
Miami Beach, Florida 33139
Ticket Link
Cost: Member: FREE, Non-Member: $6.12

The decade from the mid-1970’s to the mid-1980’s was a turbulent time for Miami Beach. Its best years as a glamorous vacation destination and Hollywood hot spot were behind it. The sun-and-fun formula that had delivered so much since the end of World War II had grown stale as new competitors like Disney World and the Caribbean drew tourists that had once flocked to the Beach. The city also faced overlapping demographic crises with a rapidly aging population in South Beach battered by inflation and an unexpected influx of poor immigrants during the Mariel boatlift.

In the midst of this turmoil, an alternative approach to development emerged in the most unlikely of places: South Beach, the center of the crisis. Historic preservation of Art Deco architecture offered an unexpected new vision to compete with the fading formulas of the past. It was during this tumultuous period that a battle for the city’s identity commenced, pitting big developers against scrappy preservationists, generating controversial images in television and film, and setting the stage for the remaking of Miami Beach.