RESURVEY PROJECT
T
ART DECO DISTRICT
GOES DIGITAL
he Miami Design Preservation League
(MDPL) has undertaken the task of
surveying, cataloging and making freely
available property information for the historic
building stock in Miami Beach. The Miami
Beach Architectural District (known locally as
the Art Deco Historic District) was added to the
National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
This was the first historic district in the city and
it is now completely accessible online.
MDPL employs the services of RuskinARC,
a cloud-based architectural survey and historic
resource inventory management system, to
store the database. The database is available
at www.ruskinarc.com/mdpl. The Art
Deco Museum has several Internet terminals
available in the Museum’s community resource
area. Visitors are able to view the database
through these terminals. Users can view
properties on an interactive map that displays
information by construction date, design style
and other categories. The database contains
over 1,300 property sites. Each sites profile
contains architectural information, historic
building records and photographs. There are
over 5,000 photographs for you to view and
see each architectural detail up close.
In 2012, we began the process to carry
out a full re-survey with two graduate students
and their advisers from Florida International
University’s (FIU) School of Architecture. They
studied six buildings and created an action
plan for the re-survey. Several student interns
have been an intricate part of the project.
Currently Carolina Richardson, an architecture
student from FIU, is working on the project.
MDPL receives funding from the City of Miami
Beach that allows us to hire these students. The
online database is free to the community.
The database serves several functions
for MDPL. It will be used to inform MDPL’s
advocacy work, educational programming
and community outreach activities. Since
Domestic building, 1021 Collins Avenue.
Hotel, 1545 Collins Avenue.
the completion of the database for the Art
Deco Historic District work has expanded
to the North Beach section of Miami Beach.
MDPL plans to one day include all of Miami
Beach. This will plan will take several years to
complete, but will add a wealth of information
to MDPL’s community resources.
THE ART OF ARCHITECTURE
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