Morris Lapidus

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Morris Lapidus bigraphy, stories - American architect

Morris Lapidus : biography

25 November 1902 – 18 January 2001

The Fontainebleau

Morris Lapidus (November 25, 1902 – January 18, 2001) was the architect of Neo-baroque Miami Modern hotels that have since come to define the 1950s resort-hotel style synonymous with Miami and Miami Beach.

Personal

His son, architect Alan Lapidus, who worked with his father for 18 years, said, "His theory was if you create the stage setting and it’s grand, everyone who enters will play their part."

In 2001, Morris Lapidus died due to a heart failure at the age of 98 at his Miami Beach apartment. Morris Lapidus’ wife of 63 years, Beatrice, had died in 1992.

Projects

List adapted from Works in Lapidus autobiography.

  • Whitman (Co-op apartments)75 Henry St., Brooklyn, NY 1968
  • Martin’s Department Store, Brooklyn, New York City 1944
  • Bond Clothing Stores flagship store, 372 Fifth Avenue at 35th Street, New York City, 1948
  • Fontainebleau Hotel, Miami Beach, 1954
  • Eden Roc Hotel, Miami Beach, 1955
  • Aruba Hotel, now Radisson Aruba Resort, Aruba, 1955
  • Americana of Bal Harbour Hotel, Miami Beach, 1956 demolished 2007
  • Deauville Resort, Miami Beach, 1950’s
  • Golden Triangle Motor Hotel, Norfolk, Virginia 1959-60; interiors only
  • Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, 1960
  • Sheraton Motor Inn, now Chinese Consulate, New York, 1959
  • The Summit Hotel, now Doubletree Metropolitan Hotel, New York, 1960
  • Ponce de Leon Hotel, later Hilton San Jeronimo Hotel, now Conrad San Juan Condado Plaza Hotel, San Juan, 1960
  • Congregation Shaare Zion, Brooklyn, New York, 1960
  • Richmond Motel, Richmond, Virginia, 1961
  • The Americana of New York Hotel, now Sheraton New York, New York, 1961
  • The Americana of San Juan Hotel, now InterContinental San Juan, San Juan, 1961
  • International Inn, now Washington Plaza Hotel, Washington, D.C., 1962
  • Capitol Skyline Hotel, Washington, D.C., 1962
  • 1800 G Street NW, Washington, D.C., 1962
  • El Conquistador Resort, Fajardo, Puerto Rico, 1965
  • San Juan Intercontinental Hotel, now El San Juan Hotel, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1965
  • 1100 L Street NW, Washington, D.C., 1967
  • 1425 K Street NW, Washington, D.C., 1970 since remodeled
  • Portman Square Hotel, London, England, United Kingdom 1967
  • Temple Menorah, Miami Beach, 1962 (remodeled)
  • TSS Mardi Gras, 1975
  • TSS Carnival, 1975
  • Carnival Cruise Lines Terminal Building, Port of Miami (Dodge Island), Miami, Florida, 1975
  • Lausanne Apartments, Naples, Florida, 1978
  • Grandview at Emerald Hills, Hollywood, Florida, 1981

Critical reception

Lapidus designed 1,200 buildings, including 250 hotels worldwide. The architectural establishment largely ignored his work, subsequently characterizing it as kitsch. Th

A 1970 Architectural League exhibit in New York began the serious appraisal of his work. Lapidus tried to ignore the critical panning, but it had an effect on his career and reputation. He burned 50 years’ worth of his drawings when he retired in 1984 and remained personally bitter about some aspects of his career. He was rediscovered in the post-modernist era: his autobiography Too Much is Never Enough, 1996, takes a shot at modernist guru Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s dictum ‘Less is more.’ According to his German biographer Martina Duttmann, he has always been more highly regarded in Europe than in the U.S., where the comparable jet-set futurism is designated "Googie". Today, books published by the AIA such as ‘Architect’s Essentials of Starting a Design Firm’ 2003, refer positively to Morris Lapidus’ works.

Early life and career

Born in Odessa in the Russian Empire (now Ukraine), his Orthodox Jewish family fled Russian pogroms to New York when he was an infant. As a young man, Lapidus toyed with theatrical set design and studied architecture at Columbia University, graduating in 1927. Lapidus worked for the prominent Beaux Arts firm of Warren and Wetmore. He then worked independently for 20 years as a retail architect before being approached to design vacation hotels on Miami Beach.