Fontainebleau Miami Beach
Neo-baroque oceanfront resort famed for a theatrical floating staircase leading to nowhere but a coat check.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Fontainebleau Miami Beach follows architect Morris Lapidus's design for the hotel's lobby staircase, said to have been sketched on a napkin when he was told to build the largest, most luxurious hotel in the world. It covers the hotel's opening in December 1954, when Groucho Marx called it the eighth wonder of the world, and the feeling Lapidus built the whole design around. Best listened to standing at the top of that staircase, looking down.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Eden Roc Miami Beach
Miami Modern beachfront resort with grand staircases and rosewood columns, built to outshine its rival next door.
Lincoln Road Mall
Open-air pedestrian shopping street with mid-century fountains, follies, and piano-key paving.
The Colony Hotel
Streamline Moderne hotel with an inverted-T blue neon sign, among the district's most photographed nighttime landmarks.
Miami Marine Stadium
Cantilevered concrete grandstand over a boat basin, covered in graffiti for decades of abandonment.
Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum
Glass-and-steel university museum with a floating suspended staircase and thousands of works spanning cultures and centuries.
Biltmore Hotel Miami Coral Gables
Landmark Spanish Revival resort with a Seville-inspired bell tower and a storied, allegedly haunted past.