Vizcaya Museum & Gardens

I grew up in Miami, Florida. It does bring about all that you think it does: good times in South Beach, perpetual sunny weather, outgoing and vivacious personalities, delicious Latin food and great drinks…to name just a few. However, Miami also has hidden gems that a few of the locals know about. One of these is Vizcaya, the former winter home and garden of James Deering. It is now a public museum that is open year-round and is a must-see visit for anyone in the interior design and decorative painting fields.

Last weekend I had a chance to visit it again. (One of the times I visited was during a junior high fieldtrip. They were holding a Renaissance Fair and I went in a toga. Thanks goodness my clueless self didn’t go into the fashion field.) Every time, I see something I haven’t discovered before.

Last year, a Visions of Vizcaya book was put together and sumptuously photographed by Bill Sumner. Here are some of the interior images found in the book.

Although not able to photograph the interior, the exterior gardens we were able to capture on film. They were designed by Diego Suarez and include leafy labyrinths, naturally-aged statues, limestone grottos with mosaic pebble ceilings, an outdoor casino, fountains and a swimming pool. Here’s a few of my images:

I hope you’ve enjoyed this peek into Vizcaya. It took two years to build the home (1914 – 1916) and employed 10% of Miami’s population at the time in order to do so. It had every single modern convenience available at the time and also elements not seen before — such as a carved stone barge docked in Biscayne Bay that guests would take a gondola ride to and enjoy afternoon tea. Doesn’t that sound like a beautiful afternoon? They are restoring part of the property outside the main house — in fact, some of the treasures the interior designer, Paul Chalfin, bought for the two-story estate date back to 50 A.D.! I know that Dean Sickler of Dundean Studios helped with the main house’s restoration a bit ago. Melanie Royals wrote a wonderful post about it as well for the blog, Art of Living. If you are ever in Miami, consider taking a break from the beaches to tour this architectural masterpiece. It will be as if you left the current world behind and entered the magical realm of another era.