Palm Springs may have midcentury modern, but Palm Beach has Mizner Mediterranean. The charismatic Addison Mizner was one of the most famous architects in America—at least among the social elite—in the 1920s. Though he was not formally educated in architecture, Mizner trained under Willis Jefferson Polk, the San Francisco designer who oversaw the construction of the Panama–Pacific International Exposition, or the 1915 World’s Fair, before moving to New York, where he mingled with the wealthy. But the apex of Mizner’s career wouldn’t begin until 1918, when he visited the tony resort town of Palm Beach for his health at the suggestion of his friend Paris Singer. Until his arrival, the buildings of southern Florida were simply pastel versions of the wooden structures found up north. Not one to fit into the mold, Mizner started designing edifices in the Spanish style, based on his experiences in Spain and Latin America—and his aesthetic continues to be the preeminent style of architecture in South Florida today. Discover Mizner’s oeuvre and the development of his signature design in the new book Addison Mizner: Architect of Fantasy and Romance ($75, Rizzoli) by Beth Dunlop. See some of our favorite Mizner Mediterranean houses from its pages here.
