Nautilus Hotel
- Architect
- Morris Lapidus
- Year
- 1951
- Style
- Mid-Century Modern
- City
- Miami, FL
- Collection
- mimo — miami modern
The Nautilus Hotel went up in South Beach in 1951, one of Morris Lapidus's early Miami Beach commissions from before the Fontainebleau made him internationally famous. Lapidus was already a major figure in postwar resort architecture, and the Nautilus shows his sculptural, curving forms taking shape on a smaller scale.
the building
Sculptural massing. Lapidus's signature sculptural forms are visible in the hotel's massing from the street, an early sketch of the swooping, theatrical shapes he later scaled up at the Fontainebleau.
the style
The Nautilus is built in a mid-century modern idiom, with the rounded, sculptural massing visible from the street that Lapidus would develop into a signature.
More on Mid-Century Modernthe architect
Morris Lapidus was already a major figure in postwar resort architecture by 1951, and the Nautilus is among his early Miami Beach hotels, predating the Fontainebleau that made his name.