Morris Lapidus

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Morris Lapidus (November 25, 1902 – January 18, 2001) was an architect, primarily known for his

A Jewish Ukrainian immigrant based in New York, Lapidus designed over 1,000 buildings during a career spanning more than 50 years, much of it spent as an outsider to the American architectural establishment.

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 explored acting which led to his interest in theatrical set design where he was directed by scene painters to study architecture. He attended Columbia University, graduating in 1927.^[1] Lapidus worked for the prominent Beaux Arts firm of Warren and Wetmore. At that time his first project was to design a garage ornament for the Vanderbilt mansion. His design incorporated Mercury, the god of Speed, into a modern sculpture. Lapidus explained that the proposed "horse head and wagon was an anachronism." From 1929 to 1943 he worked with Ross-Frankel as a retail architect. When in early 1942 his father's company, U.S. Metals, employed Morris to design a Signaling Search Light, which had been commissioned by Admiral Rickover, he resigned from Ross-Frankel, but not before showing Evan Frankel the potato fields of The Hamptons, where they went to successfully field test the light.

From 1993-until 2001, in the period before his death, Lapidus' style came back into focus. Deborah Desilets, architect and artist, was Morris Lapidus's last collaborator. She first came into contact with Lapidus when she was the marketing director for Arquitectonica in 1993. By January 18, 1996, Desilets had left ARQ to found her own firm VVA INC, where she was able to work with Lapidus on a number of architectural projects, arrange his theoretical notes, stories and images for lectures, and explore product designs. Lapidus said, "I went from the Fontainebleau to a fountain pen!" In the same manner he helped with the Fontainebleau expansion by attending meetings with the Hilton and owner, Stephen H. Muss. Of the new design, Lapidus said that it was an "Exclamation Point" to his 1954 edifice and provide his prestige to help garner the new addition. Desilets and Lapidus were a team and this collaboration continued until his untimely death. Prior to this Lapidus bequeathed his name and legacy to Desilets'--in an unprecedented act in the annuals of architectural history—as a female collaborator. To secure his legacy, Desilets' gifted to Syracuse University Special Collections all the remaining Lapidus Papers; as Lapidus himself had sent papers to Syracuse in years prior. Following in his style, Desilets has produced furniture, rugs and mirrors with Dennis Miller and Associates, New York, NY from 2005 to 2018 under the Morris Lapidus trademark. Of the projects they collaborated on there were three projects for Roots of Canada; Roots, at The Promenade Mall Toronto, Roots in Bloomfield, IL and Roots in New York, NY. Of the several Miami projects, the first was for the ornament for a Spanish-Italianate style mansion on Sunset Island II; next the totally modern design in the colorfully, upbeat restaurant Aura at 603 Lincoln Road, on Miami Beach at the Lincoln Road Mall which appeared in the first color issue of the New York Times, Dec 23, 1999. Very soon after there was a total resurgence in Lapidus. He began to give lectures, make appearances and to make gifts of his vast collection of memorabilia: 100-150 year old books were donated to the School of Architecture at Florida International University, Miami, Florida new SOA campus was designed by Bernard Tschumi, Dean of Columbia; The Wolfsonian Museum, Miami Beach received slides of his design for the Distillery Building at the 1939 World's Fair; The Bass Museum received his living room furniture set; and Columbia received more papers. At numerous Miami Beach functions, Lapidus was honored for his help in the 1994-1996 renovation of Lincoln Road by Ben Wood of Wood and Thompson. Lapidus did not live to see a Frank Gehry, Saha Hadid or Herzog and De Meuron building, or Ray Jungle's "jungle on the mall", but his expression regarding Lincoln Road fits: "Why be exotic in Private?".

Lapidus and Desilets appeared on CNN discussing a project for Ron Bloomberg on 21st Street; a very modern building that housed production staff for the Miami Beach Ballet (MBB), who had their new headquarters next to the Bloomberg site. The MBB Arquitectonica in their tropical modernism style. ( Of note is that Laurinda Spear interned with Lapidus in the 70's and later introduced Desilets' to Lapidus while at a critique of the University of Miami student work at ARQ's office. Desilets' worked at ARQ and established the computer lab and then became the Director of Marketing which she left to pursue her work with Lapidus.) Lapidus was also honored by the Society of Architectural Historians at a convention held at the Eden Roc hotel in 1998. Lapidus had a plaque erected in his honor on Lincoln Road at "The Clam" Bandshell at Euclid, quoting him "A car never bought anything." At a lecture at Harvard Dean Silvetti asked, "Who's Afraid of Lapidus? That for 50 years his architecture was not published in magazines ...". In 2000, the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum honored Lapidus as an American Original for his lifetime of work, he was interviewed on Nov 14, 200 by Charlie Rose. During his last years he was accompanied and/or stood in for by Desilets' at lectures all over America; Cranbrook, Harvard, New York Architectural League, Corcoran Gallery, Columbia University, SOA Ruston, Austin, Texas, LA and others. Desilets continue this work to date.

After all this renewed interest, Lapidus was quoted saying, "I never thought I would live to see the day when, suddenly, magazines are writing about me, newspapers are writing about me!" And indeed the people—his client's client—were clapping for him at the Cooper-Hewitt party when Lapidus exclaimed; debunking the Bauhaus's "form follows function" with "feelings find form."

Desilets" authored Rizzoli's "Morris Lapidus: The Architecture of Joy", released in October 2010. Prior to that, Assouline published with Desilets three books: "Morris Lapidus" 2004; "The Eden Roc 50th Anniversary" 2005; and "The DiLido" 2006.

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 from heart failure at the age of 98 at his Miami Beach apartment. Morris Lapidus' wife of 63 years, Beatrice, had died in 1992.

Lapidus designed 1,200 buildings, including 250 hotels worldwide. The American architectural establishment regarded Lapidus as an outsider, tried to ignore his work, then characterized it as gaudy kitsch.^[3] Ada Louise Huxtable, writing in the New York Times, said of the Americana, "The effect on arrival was like being hit by an exploding gilded eggplant."^[4] This abusive critical reception perhaps culminated in a 1963 American Institute of Architects (AIA) meeting held at the Americana, where a variety of well-known architects including Paul Rudolph, Robert Anshen and Wallace Harrison took Lapidus to task for what they described as vulgarity, cheapness, and incompetence.^[5]

A 1970

List adapted from Works in Lapidus autobiography.

• Martin's Department Store, Brooklyn, New York 1944
• Bond Clothing Stores flagship store, 372 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York, 1948
• Grossinger's Catskill Resort Hotel, multiple buildings from 1949^[6] (demolished)
• Hewlett-East Rockaway Jewish Centre, East Rockaway, New York, 1951
• Ainsley Building / Foremost Building / One Flager, Miami, Florida, 1952
• Fontainebleau Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida, 1954
• Ponce de Leon Shopping Center, St. Augustine, Florida, 1955^[7]
• Eden Roc Miami Beach Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida, 1955
• Aruba Hotel, now Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino, Aruba, 1955
• Americana of Bal Harbour Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida, 1956, demolished 2007
• Deauville Resort, Miami Beach, Florida, 1950s
• Concord Resort Hotel, Catskills, New York, Imperial Room night club and multiple other projects from the mid-1950s^[8] (demolished)
• Golden Triangle Motor Hotel, Norfolk, Virginia 1959–60; interiors only^[9]
• Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, Florida, 1960
• Sheraton Motor Inn, now Chinese Consulate, New York, New York, 1959
• The Summit Hotel
  , later a Doubletree Metropolitan Hotel, as of 2024 a Found Dormitory, New York, 1960
• Ponce de Leon Hotel, later Hilton San Jeronimo Hotel, now The Condado Plaza Hilton, 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 Times Square Hotel, 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^[10][11][12]
• Capitol Skyline Hotel, Washington, D.C., 1962
• Temple Menorah, Miami Beach, Florida, 1962 (since remodeled)
• 1800 G Street NW, Washington, D.C., 1962
• Crystal House Condominium, 5055 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, FL, 1962
• El Conquistador Resort, Fajardo, Puerto Rico, 1965
• Seacoast 5151, Miami Beach, Florida, 1966
• Oceanside Plaza, 5555 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida, 1967
• Temple Judea, 5500 Granada Boulevard, Coral Gables, Florida, 1966
• 1100 L Street NW, Washington, D.C., 1967
• Portman Square Hotel, London, England 1967
• Royal Embassy Condominium, 5750 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, FL 1968
• Whitman (Co-op apartments) 75 Henry Street, Brooklyn, New York, 1968
• 1425 K Street NW, Washington, D.C., 1970 (since remodeled)
• Parker Plaza Estates, 2030 South Ocean Drive, Hallandale Beach, FL 33009^[13]
• Bonavida Condominium, 20100 West Country Club Drive, Aventura, FL, 1974
• TSS Mardi Gras, 1975
• TSS Carnivale
  , 1975
• Carnival Cruise Lines
  Terminal Building, Port of Miami, Miami, Florida, 1975
• 100 Bayview Drive, Sunny Isles Beach, 1975
• Lausanne Apartments, Naples, Florida, 1978
• Grandview at Emerald Hills, Hollywood, Florida, 1981
• The Tropicana, Sunny Isles Beach, Fl. 1984.
• Magram's Fashion Shop, Burlington, VT, 1955^[14]

5600 condominium Collins Ave Miami Beach

Notes

Bibliography

• Dunlop, Beth, "Iconic Lapidus, Reflections on an Architect's Journey from Scorned to Revered," The Miami Herald, 13 June 2010, Page 3M.
• Nolan, David, "Fifty Feet in Paradise: The Booming of Florida," (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984).
• Ringen, Jonathan, "Lapidus of Luxury", Metropolis magazine, 2007

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Morris Lapidus.

• Photos and highlights of Lapidus' career
• Sketch of Lapidus' career
• Frances Loeb Library: Bibliography
• Morris Lapidus photograph collection, 1929-1992, held by the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University