Florida Architecture of Addison Mizner.

MIZNER, Addison; Introduction by Ida M. Tarbell.

Item Number: 108523

New York: William Helburn, Inc, 1928.

First edition of this scarce monograph on the works of Addison Mizner, with 185 striking large folio photogravures of Mizner’s iconic Florida buildings. Folio, original orange buckram over marbled boards, marbled endpapers, printed paper label to the spine, top edge gilt. Association copy, inscribed by the author beneath his frontispiece opposite the title page in the year of publication, “To Sam Morse Oh! If I had your hills to build on, Addison October 1928. Carmel Valley.” The recipient, Samuel Finley Brown Morse was an environmental conservationist and the developer of Pebble Beach. He was known as the Duke of Del Monte and ran his company from the 1919 until his death in 1969. Morse developed and rebuilt the land and properties of the Del Monte Forest into the Del Monte Hotel and the Lodge at Pebble Beach among other buildings. Morse can be credited with building eight golf courses including Spyglass Hill, Cypress Point, Pebble Beach and the Monterey Peninsula Country Club. Illustrated with 185 black and white photogravure plates. In near fine condition with only light rubbing. Introduction by Ida M. Tarbell.

An architect who excelled at transforming an architectural fantasy into a practical, livable home, Addison Mizner was one of the most original and influential designers America has produced. The houses, clubs, and shops he built for the clients of Palm Beach and Boca Raton, Florida, evince a brilliant grasp of how to blend a building with the environment, how to adapt it to the climate and how to situate it in order to make the best use of the elements of sea, light, and air. Florida Architecture of Addison Mizner shows more than 30 residences, including Mizner's own, plus those of Harold Vanderbilt, Rudman Wanamaker, A. J. Drexel Biddle, Jr., Edward Shearson, Mrs. Hugh Dillman, and many more. Also covered are such landmark Mizner creations as the Everglades Club, Via Parigi, the Singer Building, The Cloister at Boca Raton, the Riverside Baptist Church at Jacksonville, and many others. An introduction by author and journalist Ida M. Tarbell offers fascinating glimpses into Mizner's early life and background, and how it prepared him to develop architecture that "belonged" in the Florida landscape. Inspired by the beauty and charm of the villas and palaces of the Mediterranean, Mizner designed in a Spanish Colonial style far better suited to the subtropical sun and climate of Florida than the transplanted houses of the North at first so common in the state.