Henry Hohauser: Architectural Visionary of Miami Beach's Art Deco Heritage
Henry Hohauser was an architect best known as one of the two leading Art Deco architects who worked in Miami Beach, the style of architecture the city is famed for. He designed more than 300 homes, apartment buildings, hotels, stores, restaurants and theaters. His buildings are now protected in the Miami Beach Architectural District, more popularly known as the Art Deco District.
Colony Hotel. Source: ISTOCK
Hohauser was born in New York City in 1895, the son of Hungarian Jews. His father was a plumber, and he became interested in architecture because of his attraction to the plumbing schematics his father used. He studied at the Pratt Institute of Technology in Brooklyn and got his New York architecture license in 1921. He was employed as a junior partner for several years at the architectural office of his cousin, William Hohauser, which specialized in larger skyscraper structures like apartments and office buildings. Working in this office gave Henry Hohauser first-hand experience with the new Art Deco style applied in commercial and skyscraper design.
Essex House, Miami Beach Postcard courtesy of Wolfsonian-FIU Museum
In the early 1930s, Hohauser moved with his wife Grace to Miami Beach. She had developed a sinus condition, and doctors recommended a move to a warmer climate. Hohauser first worked in a real estate office and, after getting a Florida architecture license, opened his own architecture firm.
His firm was prolific from 1935 through 1958, and his work constitutes some of the most progressive and iconic early modern design in the region. Hohauser and fellow architect L. Murray Dixon are credited with bringing modernism to Miami Beach. The PBS show American Experience called them the principal architects of Deco South Beach, which included streamlined curves, jutting towers, window eyebrows, and neon.
Three of Hohauser’s notable works include the Colony Hotel, likely one of the most photographed buildings in Miami Beach, with its vertical sign balanced by horizontal windows and eyebrows. The Colony’s neon sign looks like a theater marquee at night; the similar Congress Hotel, with a ziggurat roofline and “frozen fountain” designs on the panels on both sides of the front door; and Essex House Hotel, with its streamlined curved facade, porthole windows, and recessed porch.
After World War II, Hohauser moved to a more mid-century modern style of architecture, primarily in the North Beach neighborhood of Miami Beach. These works are not as recognized today as his prewar Art Deco buildings.
The Hohausers were tightly connected to the Jewish community of Miami Beach. They were members of the Beth Jacob congregation, the first congregation in Miami Beach. In 1936, he was commissioned to design the congregation’s second building, now part of the Jewish Museum of Florida.
Congress Hotel. Source: Masala Eats Miami
To accommodate his wife’s Orthodox Judaism, the Hohausers stayed in Henry’s designed Henry Hotel, three blocks from Beth Jacob, so they could walk there on the Sabbath and other Jewish holidays. Orthodox Jews do not ride in cars on these days. Henry was reportedly less observant than his wife. The Hohausers later joined the growing Temple Emanuel congregation further north in Miami Beach.
The Hohausers moved back to New York in 1962, one year before Henry’s death. in 1993, he was ranked as one of the 100 most influential people in South Florida history by The Miami Herald.
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Citations:
Wikipedia contributors. (2022). Henry Hohauser. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from link
Bubil, Harold (2020). Florida Buildings I Love: No.27: Colony Hotel, 1935, Miami Beach. Retrieved from link
Dudley, Brenda Benoit. (2014). Congress Hotel in South Beach Getaway. Retrieved from link
The Essex House contributors. The Essex House. Retrieved from link