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Mediterranean Revival architecture

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The Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida is a grand example of Mediterranean Revival style

Mediterranean Revival is an architectural style introduced in the United States, Canada, and certain other countries in the 19th century. It incorporated references from Spanish Renaissance, Spanish Colonial, Italian Renaissance, French Colonial, Beaux-Arts, Moorish architecture, and Venetian Gothic architecture.

Peaking in popularity during the 1920s and 1930s, the movement drew heavily on the style of palaces and seaside villas and applied them to the rapidly expanding coastal resorts of Florida and California.

Structures are typically based on a rectangular floor plan, and feature massive, symmetrical primary façades. Stuccoed walls, red tiled roofs, windows in the shape of arches or circles, one or two stories, wood or wrought iron balconies with window grilles, and articulated door surrounds are characteristic.[1][2] Keystones were occasionally employed. Ornamentation may be simple or dramatic. Lush gardens often appear.

The style was most commonly applied to hotels, apartment buildings, commercial structures, and residences. Architects August Geiger and Addison Mizner were foremost in Florida, while Bertram Goodhue, Sumner Spaulding, and Paul Williams were in California.[citation needed]

There are also examples of this architectural style in Cuba, such as the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, in Havana.[citation needed]

Examples

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Pasadena City Hall in California is also an example of the City Beautiful fashion
Located in Miami Beach, and built in 1927 to house the Washington Storage Company, the Mediterranean Revival building opened to the public as a museum and research center in 1995.

See also

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Citations

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  1. ^ Harris, Cyril M. (1998). American Architecture: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. New York [u.a.]: Norton. p. 211. ISBN 0393730298.
  2. ^ "Colorful, Exotic and Bold Lines Define the Mediterranean House Plan". The Plan Collection. Retrieved August 1, 2015.

General and cited references

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  • Gustafson, Lee and Phil Serpico (1999). Santa Fe Coast Lines Depots: Los Angeles Division. Palmdale, CA: Acanthus Press. ISBN 0-88418-003-4.
  • Newcomb, Rexford (1992). Mediterranean Domestic Architecture for the United States. New York: Hawthorne Printing Company. ISBN 0-926494-13-9.
  • Nolan, David (1995). The Houses of St. Augustine. Sarasota, Pineapple Press.
  • Nylander, Justin A. (2010). Casas to Castles: Florida's Historic Mediterranean Revival Architecture. Schiffer Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7643-3435-1.
  • Signor, John R. (1997). Southern Pacific Lines: Pacific Lines Stations. Vol. 1. Pasadena, CA: Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society. ISBN 0-9657208-4-5.
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