Roy Franklin France (October 6, 1888 – February 15, 1972) was the American architect who is credited with creating the

Miami Beach, Florida Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean ...

skyline. He was originally based in the Midwest, but relocated to Miami Beach after a 1931 trip to Florida with his wife. Several of his works are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

(NRHP). Works in the Midwest include: * Lake Shore Apartments, 470-498 Sheridan Rd.

Evanston, Illinois Evanston is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, situated on the North Shore (Chicago), North Shore along Lake Michigan. A suburb of Chicago, Evanston is north of Chicago Loop, downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skok ...

, NRHP-listed * Hillcrest Apartment, 1509-1515 Hinman Ave.

, NRHP-listed *

Oak Park Arms The Oak Park Arms is a senior living retirement community focused on independent living for seniors located at 408 S. Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park, Illinois. More than ten other providers of senior-centered care maintain offices at the Oak Park Ar ...

, 408 S. Oak Park Avenue,

Oak Park, Illinois Oak Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, adjacent to Chicago. It is the List of municipalities in Illinois, 26th-most populous municipality in Illinois, with a population of 54,318 as of the 2020 census. Oak Park was first se ...

*Santa Maria Apartments, 208-232 N. Oak Park Avenue and 719-729 Erie Street, ak Park, Illinois*One or more works in NRHP-listed

Hyde Park-Kenwood Historic District Hyde or Hydes may refer to: People *Hyde (surname) *Hyde (musician), Japanese musician from the bands L'Arc-en-Ciel and VAMPS American statutes *Hyde Amendment, an amendment that places well-defined limitations on Medicare spending on aborti ...

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

In Miami Beach, France "designed dozens of prominent hotels in

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

and Post War Modern styles adapted to local conditions. His advice regarding design was, 'Let in the air and sun. That's what people come to Florida for.'" The Post War Modern style here came to be known as

Miami Modern architecture Miami Modernist architecture, or MiMo, is a regional style of architecture that developed in South Florida during the post-war period. The style was internationally recognized as a regionalist response to the International Style. It can be seen ...

Works

Works by Roy France in the Miami Beach include (roughly from south to north): (*=included in Collins Waterfront Architectural District) He designed numerous hotels in Miami Beach which were surviving in 2018, while several others had been demolished. Demolished ones included: *Whitman (demolished), *Shoremede (demolished). A number are

contributing buildings In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...

in the Collins Waterfront Architectural District, listed on the National Register.

References

American architects Miami Beach, Florida 1888 births 1972 deaths {{US-architect-19C-stub