This exhibition focused on domestic architecture in Florida during the post-World War II period and featured a reconstructed house, designed by Igor Polevitzky, inside the museum. Visitors moved through the rooms of the house to gain a sense of how people lived 50 years ago.
The Florida Home explored developments in the design of single-family homes in the context of the broader social and cultural trends of the era. Architectural styles reflected the postwar generation’s desire for modern homes that expressed the optimistic, future-oriented mood of the times and that were adapted to a sub-tropical environment. Among the architects featured in the exhibition, along with Polevitzky, were Alfred Browning Parker, Rufus Nims, Norman Giller, Russell Pancoast, Wahl Snyder, George Reed, Kenneth Treister and Chuck Reed.
The exhibition presented a wide range of architectural drawings, photographs and magazines from the collections of the Historical Museum, the University of Florida Smathers Libraries and various architectural archives. House models and period furniture are also featured, while the Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archive provided postwar television programs and home movies from Florida.
Guest Curators: Jean-François Lejeune and Allan Shulman, both professors at the University of Miami’s School of Architecture.
Organized by HistoryMiami.
Sponsored in part by The Keyes Company, The Charles N. and Eleanor Knight Leigh Foundation and Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co.
