The Miami Beach Architectural District contains 960 Art Deco buildings constructed between 1923 and 1943, the largest concentration of the style in the United States. What began as a 1979 grassroots campaign by Barbara Baer Capitman to save the Cardozo Hotel from demolition became a National Register Historic District spanning one square mile of South Beach. The pastel palette that defines Ocean Drive today is a 1980s invention — Leonard Horowitz's "Miami Vice" color scheme replaced the original whites and creams, creating the postcard image recognized worldwide. The Art Deco Welcome Center and Museum at 1001 Ocean Drive serves as the gateway to understanding this architectural revolution. Founded by the Miami Design Preservation League in 1976, the center anchors the district's southern end where Ocean Drive meets Lummus Park. The museum's collection includes original blueprints from architects Henry Hohauser and L. Murray Dixon, whose streamlined moderne facades incorporated nautical motifs — porthole windows, ship railings, racing stripes — reflecting Miami Beach's identity as America's winter playground. The district's buildings feature terrazzo floors, etched glass, chrome fixtures and geometric friezes that remain intact beneath decades of renovation. A South Beach Miami walking tour reveals layers beyond the architecture. The district's evolution from 1920s resort town to 1970s retirement community to today's international destination shaped its physical fabric. Art Deco hotels like the Colony, Carlyle and Leslie occupy narrow lots with shallow setbacks, designed when automobile traffic was sparse and pedestrians filled the sidewalks. The ten-block corridor between 5th and 15th Streets contains the highest density of protected structures, with Ocean Drive, Collins Avenue and Washington Avenue forming the district's commercial spine. Guided walks typically begin at the Welcome Center, proceed north along Ocean Drive past Lummus Park's beachfront, then loop through side streets where residential Art Deco survives with minimal alteration. The district's protected status means every exterior change requires Preservation Board approval, maintaining architectural coherence across nearly a century of development.