Abbey Hotel, Miami South Beach

The Abbey Hotel, in Miami’s famed South Beach Art Deco precinct, was built in 1940 to plans by architect Albert Anis.

The hotel occipies a corner site with the main door set right on the corner. The name of the hotel is spelt out right above the door. Further up, the roofline features two barber’s poles.

The building itself is quite plain with the windows set-back creating strong horizontal banding between each row of windows. The ground floor is coloured darker than the upper two storeys of the hotel perhaps to distinguish between the public and private spaces within the building.

There is a deco panel along the side of the hotel at street level featuring a nice representation of a stork.

The crowning glory of the Abbey Hotel, however, is the relief of the Salamander on the front of the building above the door.

Now you don’t often see a Salamander as decoration on a building but then nothing would surprise me in Miami South Beach.