Morris Lapidus

Architect Morris Lapidus was renowned for the opulent Miami Beach hotels he designed in the 1950s and 1960s. Born in Odessa, Lapidus was brought to the United States when he was an infant. He studied architecture at Columbia University and worked in New York after graduating until 1942, when he moved to Miami. One of his best-known projects, the Fontainebleau Hotel, appeared in several films, including the 1964 James Bond feature Goldfinger. Lapidus’s buildings were designed to impart a sense of luxury, glamour, and vitality, successfully reflecting and celebrating the consumerist fervor of postwar American culture.