Colony Hotel, Miami South Beach

The Colony Hotel is one of the fabulous Art Deco hotels along Ocean Drive in Miami South Beach. It was designed by Henry Hohauser in 1935. Hohauser designed many buildings in the South Beach precinct providing a significant contribution to the Deco heritage of the area.

The building has simple decoration. A large sign dominates the front of the building spelling out Colony Hotel in bold letters supported on an inverted ‘T’. There are several series of thin horizontal bands either side of the sign and short vertical bars along the central part of the roofline with a zig-zag pattern on either side.

The windows form recessed horizontal bands with protruding eyebrows providing additional shade from the Florida sun. The eyebrows curve around the sides giving the building a nice profile from street level.

The windows themselves cut through the corner of the hotel but there are also supporting columns giving the overall appearance of a continuous wall.

At night the character of the whole area changes when the neon is lit. The Colony Hotel is no exception as you can see from the photo below.