Travel Reference
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Miami loves modern, but the Olympia Theater at the Gusman Center for the Performing
Arts is vintage-classic beautiful. The ceiling, which features 246 twinkling stars and
clouds cast over an indigo-deep night, frosted with classical Greek sculpture and Vienna
Opera House-style embellishment, will melt your heart. The theater opened in 1925; today
the lobby serves as the Downtown Miami Welcome Center, doling out visitor information
and organizing tours of the historic district; at night you can still catch theater and music
performances.
MDC Museum of Art & Design
MUSEUM
(Freedom Tower; MAP
; % 305-237-7700; www.mdcmoad.org ; 600 Biscayne Blvd;
GOOGLE MAP
free; h noon-5pm Wed-Sun)
Miami-Dade College operates a small but well-curated art museum downtown; the per-
manent collection includes works by Matisse, Picasso and Chagall and focuses on minim-
alism, pop art and contemporary Latin American art. The museum's home building is art
itself: the Freedom Tower , an iconic slice of Miami's old skyline, is one of two surviving
towers modeled after the Giralda bell tower in Spain's Cathedral of Seville. The 'Ellis Is-
land of the South,' it served as an immigration processing center for almost half a million
Cuban refugees in the 1960s. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, it
was also home to the Miami Daily News for 32 years.
Miami Center for Architecture & Design
MUSEUM
(Old US Post Office; MAP
; % 305-448-7488; www.miamicad.org ; 100 NE 1st Ave;
GOOGLE MAP
h 10am-5pm Mon-Fri)
It makes sense that the Miami branch of the American Institute of Architects would pick
the Old US Post Office as headquarters of its Center for Architecture & Design. Construc-
ted in 1912, this was the first federal building in Miami. It features a low-pitched roof,
elaborate doors and carved entryways, and was purchased in 1937 to serve as the country's
first savings and loan. Today, it houses lectures and events related to architecture, design
and urban planning, and hosts a small but vibrant exhibition on all of the above subjects.
Black Archives Historic Lyric Theater Welcome Center
HISTORIC BUILDING
(Lyric Theater; MAP
; % 305-636-2390; www.theblackarchives.org ; 819 NW 2nd Ave)
GOOGLE MAP
 
 
 
 
 
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