Occupying the southernmost three miles or so of Miami Beach is gorgeous SOUTH BEACH , with its hundreds of dazzling pastel-colored Twenties and Thirties buildings. Concentrated between 5th and 23rd streets, Euclid Avenue and the ocean, the area referred to as the Deco district actually incorporates a variety of styles: take one of the excellent walking or cycling tours from the Miami Design Preservation League Welcome Center to learn the difference between Streamline, Moderne and Art Deco proper.
The most famous buildings lie along Ocean Drive , where revamped hotels have made much of their design heritage. One of the newest hotels is the reconverted Casa Casuarina at the corner of 10th Street. It was formerly the home of Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace, one of the first people to rediscover the pleasures of South Beach in the 1980s only to be shot on the steps of his home in a shocking murder in 1997. By night, the ten blocks of Ocean Drive became one of the liveliest stretches in Miami, as terrace cafs spill across the specially widened sidewalk, crowds of tourists and locals saunter by the beach and Jazz Age neon illuminates the starry sky. Behind Ocean Drive are Collins Avenue , lined with more Deco hotels and fashion chains, and Washington Avenue , which tends more toward funky thrift stores and cool coffee bars. At 1001 Washington Ave, the imaginative WolfsonianFlorida International University Museum (MonTues & FriSat 11am6pm, Thurs 11am9pm, Sun noon5pm; $5, free Thurs 69pm) houses an eclectic collection of decorative arts from the late nineteenth century to 1945. The displays of old books, photos, paintings, posters and all manner of domestic objects are impressive, if a bit muddled.