The Bacardi Buildings are a landmark of

Midtown Miami Midtown Miami is the collective term for the Wynwood and Edgewater neighborhoods of Miami, Florida. It is located north of Downtown and south of the Miami Design District and is roughly bound by North 20th Street to the south, I-195 to the north ...

and served as the former headquarters of Bacardi USA. The site, located at 2100

Biscayne Boulevard U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) in Florida runs along the state's east coast from Key West to its crossing of the St. Marys River (Florida/Georgia), St. Marys River into Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia north of Boulogne, Florida, Boulogne and south of ...

, consists of the Bacardi Imports Tower and the Bacardi Imports Administration Annex, also known as "The Jewel Box". The tower and the annex were constructed in 1963 and 1973, respectively, and in 2018 they were added to 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 artist ...

Bacardi complex

The two buildings are located in a plaza at 2100 Biscayne Boulevard. The plaza sits directly above an underground parking garage and features a large painted Bacardi logo, which is visible to planes arriving at and departing from

Miami International Airport Miami International Airport , also known as MIA and historically as Wilcox Field, is the primary airport serving the greater Miami metropolitan area with over 1,000 daily flights to 167 domestic and international destinations, including most co ...

. Both buildings are accessible from the parking garage via elevators.

Bacardi Imports Tower

The Bacardi Imports Tower, built in 1963, was the first of the two buildings to be constructed. It was commissioned by former Bacardi president José “Pepin” Bosch and designed by Cuban architect Enrique Gutierrez.

Azulejo ''Azulejo'' (, ; from the Arabic ''al- zillīj'', ) is a form of Spanish and Portuguese painted tin-glazed ceramic tilework. ''Azulejos'' are found on the interior and exterior of churches, palaces, ordinary houses, schools, and nowadays, r ...

murals by Brazilian artist and ceramist

Francisco Brennand Francisco Brennand, or ''Francisco de Paula de Almeida Brennand'', (June 11, 1927 – December 19, 2019), was a Brazilian painter and sculptor, best known for his work in ceramics. Life Francisco de Paula de Almeida Brennand was born in Recif ...

cover two of the building's walls, giving it the nickname "the blue tile building".

Bacardi Imports Administration Annex

The administration annex was constructed ten years after the tower, in 1973, and was designed by Ignacio Carrera-Justiz of

Coral Gables, Florida Coral Gables, officially City of Coral Gables, is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The city is located southwest of Downtown Miami. As of the 2020 U.S. census, it had a population of 49,248. Coral Gables is known globally as home to the ...

. It is referred to as "The Jewel Box" because of the colorful hammered-glass mosaic covering its four sides. The

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. W ...

n-themed mosaic was designed by German artist Johannes M. Dietz.

Induction into National Register of Historic Places

Around 2009, Miami citizens began a campaign to label the buildings as "historic".

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, ...

professor of architecture Allan Shulman said "Miami's brand is its identity as a tropical city. The Bacardi buildings are exactly the sort that resonate with our consciousness of what Miami is about". In 2007, Chad Oppenheim, the head of

Oppenheim Architecture + Design Oppenheim Architecture is an architecture, planning, and interior practice based in Miami, New York, and Basel founded in 1999 by Chad Oppenheim. The firm has received multiple distinctions, including over 45 AIA Awards. Projects range between hos ...

, described the Bacardi buildings as "elegant, with a

Modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

ook combined with Ook, OoK or OOK may refer to: * Ook Chung (born 1963), Korean-Canadian writer from Quebec * On-off keying, in radio technology * Toksook Bay Airport (IATA code OOK), in Alaska * Ook!, an esoteric programming language based on Brainfuck * Ook, the ...

a local flavour." On April 18, 2012, the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to ...

' Florida chapter placed the buildings on its list of ''Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places'' as Bacardi USA. The complex was listed on the

in 2018.

Current status

The Bacardi Buildings have been occupied by the

National YoungArts Foundation YoungArts (previously National YoungArts Foundation and National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, or NFAA) is an American charity established in 1981 by Lin and Ted Arison to help nurture emerging high-school artists. The foundation is bas ...

since 2012. The current Bacardi headquarters are located at 2701 Le Jeune Road in Coral Gables, Florida.

References

Buildings and structures in Miami Bacardi National Register of Historic Places in Miami {{National Register of Historic Places, state=autocollapse