History
Originally, Lincoln Road was covered by a forest of mangroves, as was most of Miami Beach. Around 1912, Carl Fisher had Lincoln Road cleared and it eventually became the town's social center. Fisher, himself, maintained a real estate office on Lincoln Road. Over time, Lincoln Road featured premium retail destinations like Bonwit Teller, Saks Fifth Avenue, and even Cadillac and Packard car dealerships.
Around 1960, Miami Beach architect Morris Lapidus, whose credits include Miami Beach's Fountainebleau and Eden Roc hotels, was commissioned to redesign Lincoln Road. Lapidus's design for Lincoln Road, complete with gardens, fountains, shelters and an amphitheater, reflected the Miami Modern Architecture, or "MiMo", style that Lapidus pioneered in the 1950s. The Road was closed to traffic and became one of the nation's first pedestrian malls.
Today, Lincoln Road features a state-of-the-art multiplex cinema, the architecturally acclaimed 1111 Lincoln Road parking garage, the (block away) also acclaimed New World Center concert hall, the offices of Viacom Latin America, boutique and national retail stores, and fine restaurants and bars. Lincoln Road is also home to the newly restored Colony Theatre, a performing arts venue, and ArtCenter/South Florida, a collection of studios and gallery spaces for artists. Street performers entertain an almost constant stream of tourists and locals on Lincoln Road. It is among the most popular destinations for visitors to the South Beach area.
In 2006, the Miami Beach Preservation Board approved the closure of traffic of the west end of Lincoln Road for the purpose of extending the popular pedestrian mall.
In 2011, the Florida International University School of Architecture opened a sister campus to its main campus at University Park, at Lincoln Road, with classroom spaces for FIU architecture, art, music and theater graduate students.
On May 6, 2011, the thoroughfare was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Lincoln Road Mall.
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