Boca Rococo : how Addison Mizner invented Florida's gold coast

by Caroline Seebohm

Paper Book, 2001

Status

Available

Call number

720/.92

Genres

Publication

New York : Clarkson Potter, c2001.

Description

Addison Mizner's Mediterranean-style mansions are much-admired Florida icons, where even today you can find many homes modeled with stucco walls and tiled roofs. In the paperback release of Boca Rococo, Caroline Seebohm's successful biography on the flamboyant architect is more accessible now than ever as it reaches more readers interested in the man himself.Mizner had global experience from San Francisco to China during his early days, before landing in New York and eventually, South Florida. He had no formal training but did possess natural talent, establishing him as architect of the rich and famous. His designs made the city of Palm Beach one of America's most elegant resort spots--and fed his dream of developing a "Venice-on-the-Ocean" in nearby Boca Raton. Mizner's plans ended with the collapse of Florida's real estate boom. He died in 1933, broken and bankrupt.With inspiration from and inclusion of never-before-seen material like floor plans and autobiographical works, and a new foreword written by the author, Seebohm gives readers a complete view of Mizner as one of the greatest architects and more flamboyant Americans.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member EricCostello

This is a biography of Addison Mizner, whose most notable achievement was the designing of a number of buildings in South Florida in the 1920s, especially in the area of Palm Beach. He did many other things (including panning for gold in the Yukon), and traveled extensively in his youth. He was

also an elder brother of Wilson Mizner, who by turns was a playwright and crook, and is really the central villain of this biography, since it was his actions (in relation to an extravagant project in Boca Raton) that ultimately ruined Addison Mizner. Addison Mizner, in this book and unlike other accounts, is treated sympathetically and seriously as an architect. Rather an interesting read.

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