Design Shines in Miami Miami has become one of the country’s best destinations for design. To be clear, the correct geographic nomenclature for what everyone, including this columnist, calls Miami is actually Greater Miami as Miami Beach and Miami, linked by causeways across Biscayne Bay, are actually separate cities. Lining the streets of Miami Beach—about a century ago, this was a mangrove swamp—are hundreds of listed buildings from the second quarter of the 20th century. Early morning in Miami Beach. (Dennis Lennox) The most well-known are the pastel-colored art deco landmarks of the aptly named Miami Beach Architectural District. Found along the main streets of Collins Avenue, Ocean Drive, and Washington Avenue, they were remarkably saved from demolition by preservation-minded residents who challenged powerful interests at a time when few people in the halls of government thought half-century-old architecture was worth saving from the forces of progress and development. After all, today’s retro was once considered modern.