1980: South Beach as a 1970s-Style Venice Thirty-five years ago Art Deco was only just becoming cool. Miami Beach's preservation movement was spreading the word and a newly established historic district offered some protection to streamlined buildings in Miami Beach's city center. But south of Fifth Street was a different story. Dreams of remaking the area into a kind of tropical Venice with scads of waterways and a 1970s look were still warming the hearts of developers, city leaders and others. This footage provides a moving image record of that dream...Probably. It's an architectural model of redevelopment in "South Beach," according to the label on the original WTVJ archive tape, but with its waterways and complete lack of original buildings it looks like the South Pointe plan. And its complete demolition of historic buildings wouldn't fly in the historic district. So...here's South Pointe as pre-"Miami Vice" Miami Beach saw it. Or not. If you were there and remember exactly what this is, please do give us a ring! This video and audio is copyrighted/owned by the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives. Subscribe to the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives’ YouTube channel and tune in to the fascination and fun of Miami and Florida’s past, captured on film and video and preserved by the Wolfson Archives at Miami Dade College.

Comments

1. Thank God that this plan did not come true.