A Buyer’s Guide to Home Styles in Miami

Whether you come to Miami for its endless summer or internationally renowned nightlife, there are plenty of reasons to stay. After falling in love with The Magic City, you may wonder what kind of home to buy. 

Miami has been at the forefront of architecture and design for over a century. America’s wealthiest investors and most innovative designers transformed Miami into a living museum of the 20th Century’s evolving architectural styles. 

Design elements vary in each neighborhood, with unique single-family homes, beautiful condos, and impressive high-rises woven together. Identifying Miami’s architecture can bring the city to life and help you choose which home suits your lifestyle. 

Below, the team at Prevu Real Estate explains the history and design elements of Miami’s most popular home styles. 

Types of homes in Miami

• Conch Style
• Mediterranean Revival 
• Bungalow
• Art Deco
• Miami Modern (MiMo)
• High-rise Condos

Conch Style

In the 19th century, immigrants from the Bahamas came to Miami and began building homes. These immigrants were known as "Conchs" because a significant part of their diet consisted of the mollusk conchs. As a result, these homes came to be called either Bahamian or Conch style homes. 

Many Bahamians were experienced boat builders and applied their expertise and style in their new city. Like boats, nearly every component of a Conch home is built of wood. 

These quaint, rectangular homes are set atop piers, slightly elevating them above ground. Architectural features of conch homes consist of beveled clapboard siding, gabled roofs, front porches, and decorative trim from baluster to post. Like many Caribbean houses, Conchs are often painted in bright, pastel colors. 

Excellent craftsmanship and quality materials have lasted over the century to bring Conch homes into modern times. Generally, these homes are concentrated in Coconut Grove and Overtown, where you can still feel the sea breeze that first inspired these island-style dwellings. 

Mediterranean Revival 

The expansion of the Florida East Coast Railway to South Florida and America’s economic prosperity in the 1920s resulted in Florida’s first land boom. Architects like Addison Mizner answered the call for Miami’s rapid expansion with a style of architecture now known as Mediterranean Revival. 

Apartment buildings, mansions, and single-family homes all showcase design elements reminiscent of Mediterranean coastal towns in Italy, France, and Spain. Telltale signs of these homes include clay tile roofs, stucco walls, Greek columns, arched doorways, and outdoor courtyards. 

The Versace Mansion and the Freedom Tower are noteworthy examples of the Mediterranean Revival movement. Similarly, Española Way in the Spanish Village feels like a picturesque street from the French Riviera in the heart of South Beach. 

Potential buyers who appreciate the Mediterranean style can search for homes in Miami Springs, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, and Miami Beach. 

Bungalow

In the 1930s, many of Miami’s bungalows were built from mail-ordered blueprints. As they became more popular, individual builders began to reimagine bungalow designs in unique ways. 

Modest construction and local materials such as limestone and pine made the homes available to Miami’s middle class. However, now they are among Miami’s rarest and most charming homes. 

Though you can’t find two identical Bungalows, they share quintessential design features. Multiple gable roof lines, deep porches, wooden columns on tapered stone piers, wide sideboards, and bold trim characterize the Bungalow aesthetic. 

Other design components like raised floors, large sash windows, and louvered attic vents were employed to mitigate Miami’s tropical heat. 

Though Miami’s remaining bungalows are interspersed throughout the city, most of them can be found in Little Havana and Shenandoah. 

Art Deco

In 1925 the World’s Fair in Paris was called the "Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes." Art Deco was first presented there as "Style Moderne," but as the style gained popularity, people called it "Art Deco" after the French name of the event. Miami’s Art Deco period roughly spanned from 1935-1950. 

Art Deco celebrated human-made materials and found beauty in the world’s recent industrialization and new technology. Design styles include rounded corners, vertical stripes, and pastel facades. Machined materials like circular porthole windows, neon lights, and glass reflected humanity’s progressive trajectory. 

In South Florida, decorative motifs feature palm trees, flamingos, pelicans, and nautical themes. Cantilevered window shades nicknamed "eyebrows" are specific to Miami’s Art Deco buildings. Everything from condos to freestanding homes were built in Art Deco style. 

Due to preservation efforts to keep these gems in Miami, only a few Art Deco homes and condos are for sale. Potential homebuyers should search Miami’s Art Deco District from 5th Street to 23rd Street, along Ocean Drive, Collins Avenue, and Washington Avenue.

Miami Modern (MiMo)

Following the great depression and World War II, the U.S. experienced a time of prosperity and affluence. Newfound optimism drew many Americans to sunny Miami, where Mid-Century Modern architecture was reinterpreted with a tropical, futuristic flare. The new style came to be called "MiMo," short for Miami Modern.

MiMo architecture bears clear influences of the Art Deco and the Depression Moderne movements, but MiMo style homes are less uniform. Stronger building technology incorporated steel and concrete, allowing for open floor plans and large rooms. Sliding glass doors, oversized windows, and vaulted ceilings allow light to pour in, blending the outdoors and indoors. Exterior elements featured airy walkways, flat roofs, cheesehole partitions, decorative metal railings, and shaded walkways. 

Potential homebuyers will find MiMo architecture in middle and upper Miami, particularly along Collins Avenue. You’ll also find a variety of MiMo condos and homes on Biscayne Boulevard from 50th St. to 77th Street, an area known as the MiMo Historic District. 

High-rise Condos

It’s impossible to discuss Miami’s architecture without mentioning its Luxury high-rises. In the 1970s and 80s, developers began competing for the best views of Biscayne Bay. 

Miami’s skyline was quickly transformed into a collection of impressive highrises along Brickell Avenue and Biscayne Boulevard. Fueled by the same optimism found in Miami’s earlier architecture, new highrises push the limits of possibility into the present. 

Aside from sheer height, Miami’s high rises are characterized by an emphasis on luxury. Rooftop terraces and pools, private balconies, and automated parking systems are just a few amenities you’ll find in these lavish residences. 

Those looking to relocate to one of Miami’s high rises can check out the Downtown condos near the waterfront. To the north, Edgewater is home to some of the city’s up-and-coming luxury condos and high rises. 

As we look to the future, the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and Residences will be Miami’s next record-breaking high rise on Biscayne Boulevard, rising to 1,049 feet.