Art Deco Welcome Center, Miami Beach, Visitor Guide & Things to Do Nearby

The Art Deco Welcome Center is the visitor center and small museum of the Miami Design Preservation League, found at 1001 Ocean Drive in Miami Beach. It sits in the lobby of the 10th Street Auditorium, right beside the old Miami Beach Patrol headquarters, and makes a natural first stop for anyone curious about the district's architecture.

The story behind it

The Welcome Center occupies the lobby of the 10th Street Auditorium, a building from 1954 on the beach side of Ocean Drive at 10th Street. Today the space is run by the Miami Design Preservation League and holds exhibitions about the architecture of the Art Deco district, along with "visual memoirs" that record the lives of people who lived and worked in these buildings.

The neighbor is the older of the two. The Miami Beach Patrol Headquarters was built around 1934 and designed by Robert A. Taylor in the Art Deco style with Streamlined Moderne touches. Its rounded form was meant to recall a ship, and from here lifeguards watch over the Atlantic. Ocean Drive as a whole became famous for its Art Deco hotels and its nightlife, and this corner is a good place to see how that reputation took shape.

What to look for

• The rounded central mass and curved corners of the Patrol Headquarters, which give the white building its ship-like profile.
• The porthole windows, a nautical detail that suits a building standing on the sand.
• The iron rails on the upper deck, shaped to resemble the captain's bridge of a ship.
• The flagpole and the lifeguard presence, a reminder that the building is still tied to the beach it faces.

Tips for your visit

• Allow about 20 to 30 minutes for the exhibitions and the exterior of both buildings, longer if you like to read every panel.
• The Welcome Center is a museum space you can enter, but check current opening hours before you go.
• Walk around to the sand side for the best view of the Patrol Headquarters. Late afternoon and dusk give softer light on the white walls.
• You are on Ocean Drive, so the hotels and the beach are right at hand. Combine this stop with a slow walk along the street to compare the facades.

See it on a quest

Try Ghost Hunt in Miami Beach if you like your sightseeing with a spooky edge. You reach this corner on foot as one stop of a longer route through the area, the app tells you about each place as you arrive, and you solve a puzzle in front of what you are looking at. It is a paid quest, and one ticket covers the whole group.

Murder Mystery: Death in the Shadows in Miami Beach suits anyone who prefers a mystery to a lecture. The route leads you through the streets around Ocean Drive, shares the story of each place as you reach it, and sets a puzzle in the scene itself. It is also a paid quest, and one ticket covers the whole group.