Ocean Drive is a major

thoroughfare A thoroughfare is a primary passage or way as a transit route through regularly trafficked areas, whether by road on dry land or, by extension, via watercraft or aircraft. On land, a thoroughfare may refer to anything from a multi-lane highwa ...

in the South Beach neighborhood of Miami Beach,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

Route description

The road starts at South Pointe just south of 1st Street, near the southernmost end of the main

barrier island Barrier islands are coastal landforms and a type of dune system that are exceptionally flat or lumpy areas of sand that form by wave and tidal action parallel to the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of anything from ...

of Miami Beach, about a quarter mile west of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. Ocean Drive continues north to 15th Street, immediately southeast of Lincoln Road.

Attractions

Ocean Drive is known mostly for its

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

hotels and restaurants/bars, many of which have been prominently featured in numerous movies and media. Among the most popular is the 1939 Colony Hotel, known as the most photographed art deco hotel. Renovated as a boutique hotel, it has been featured in cameos in scores of movies and TV shows, including the series ''Dexter''. Another popular art deco hotel is the Clevelander Hotel; in addition to its standard hotel services, it has an indoor sports lounge, a dance floor and pool area on the ground floor, and a complementary roof-top lounge. The exterior of the Carlyle Hotel was used for the Birdcage drag club in the 1996 comedy ''

The Birdcage ''The Birdcage'' is a 1996 American comedy film directed by Mike Nichols, adapted by Elaine May, and starring Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Nathan Lane, and Dianne Wiest. Dan Futterman, Calista Flockhart, Hank Azaria, and Christine Baranski appear ...

''. The Sunray Apartments were featured in the movie ''Scarface'' (1983). The 2002

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

, '' Grand Theft Auto: Vice City,'' based the look of its eponymous city on

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

. It has a replica of Ocean Drive with exactly the same name. Ocean Drive is also the location of the famed

Casa Casuarina Casa Casuarina, also known as the Versace Mansion, is an American property built in 1930, renowned for being owned by and the place of the murder of the Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace; he lived there from 1992 until his death in 1997. It ...

, the residence of the late Italian fashion designer

Gianni Versace Giovanni Maria "Gianni" Versace (; 2 December 1946 – 15 July 1997) was an Italian fashion designer, socialite and businessman. He was the founder of Versace, an international luxury-fashion house that produces accessories, fragrances, make-u ...

. Since his death, the house was sold and adapted for use as a boutique hotel. It is one of the most photographed houses in North America.

Culture

Developed in the 1920s and 1930s, the street is the center of the Miami Art Deco District, which contains about 900 preserved, contributing buildings. It is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. Streamline Moderne evolved from the Art Deco style, and dominates the street. ''Ocean Drive'' magazine is named after the street.

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

easy-listening duo

The Lighthouse Family Lighthouse Family were a British musical duo that rose to prominence in the mid-1990s and initially remained active until the early 2000s. Singer Tunde Baiyewu and songwriter Paul Tucker formed the act in 1993 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, a ...

released a single entitled " Ocean Drive” (although this is based on a road in the UK), which reached #11 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. A street in the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is based on the street.

Restaurants and cabaret

One of the most famous restaurants on this strip is Mango's Tropical Café, a Caribbean-inspired restaurant that also has live performances by dancers and singers. Known for its

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...

and

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part of ...

shows, the Palace Bar is dedicated to the

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

community.

Cars

In July 2020, Miami Beach Commission passed a resolution that banned cars on Ocean Drive in light of the COVID-19 pandemic to create a pedestrian thoroughfare and increased sidewalk seating. Ocean Drive reopened to traffic in January 2022.

Gallery

File:Ocean drive south beach miami night.JPG, Night view File:Colony Hotel Miami Beach Izzy.JPG File:Boulevard Hotel (Neon sign), Miami Beach.jpg, Neon lighting of the Boulevard Hotel File:Oceandrivesuperbowl.jpg, Ocean Drive on Super Bowl XLI weekend, 2007 File:SouthBeachMiamiBeach.jpg, Typical

art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

buildings File:OceanDriveSouthBeach.jpg File:Entry-Miami.jpg, Beach access in Ocean Drive File:Miami Beach - South Beach Buildings - Ocean Plaza Hotel on Ocean Drive.jpg, Ocean Plaza Hotel File:Versace mansion - casa casuarina.jpg, Versace Mansion - Casa Casuarina File:Miami Beach - South Beach Buildings - Leslie Hotel on Ocean Drive.jpg, Leslie Hotel File:Miami Beach - South Beach Buildings - Edison Hotel on Ocean Drive.jpg, Edison Hotel File:Miami Beach - South Beach buildings - Victor Hotel and Lummus Park.jpg, Victor Hotel viewed from Lummus Park File:Miami Beach - South Beach buildings - Lummus Park and the Victor Hotel.jpg, Tides Hotel from Lummus Park File:Southbeachoceandrive01.JPG, View north with Victor Hotel on the left of picture. File:Miami Beach Buildings - Betsy Hotel.jpg, Betsy Hotel File:Miami Beach - South Beach buildings - The Carlyle Hotel.jpg, The Carlyle Hotel File:Miami Beach - South Beach buildings - Fat Tuesday.jpg, Fat Tuesday Miami Beach File:Miami Beach - South Beach buildings - The Tides Hotel.jpg, The Tides Hotel

References

*''Florida'', ''DK Eyewitness Travel Guides,'' 2004, pgs. 58 & 59

External links

Google historical timeline of Ocean Drive, South Beach, Miami
{{Greater Miami Roads in Miami Beach, Florida Roads in Miami-Dade County, Florida Shopping districts and streets in the United States Tourist attractions in Miami-Dade County, Florida