Thoughts on Art Deco, Architects, & The Power of Archives
The Coca-Cola Bottling Plant prior to restoration activities.
Maybe it’s winter closing in, or perhaps a longing to travel after this year, but I can’t help daydreaming about my trip to Miami last December. If you know me, then you know Art Deco may be one of my favorite architectural styles. Unfortunately for me, there's not a huge selection of Art Deco buildings in Indianapolis to enjoy - the city doesn't compare to Miami, Cincinnati, Chicago, NYC, etc. We do have a few stunners: Circle Tower on Monument Circle, Wasson's Department Store on Washington Street, and the Coca-Cola Bottling Plant, currently under rehabilitation as part of the Bottleworks project. Strangely enough, all of these structures were designed by the local architectural firm of Rubush & Hunter. Many years ago, I spent a few months archiving the Rubush & Hunter collection, falling in love with rolls of drawings and stacks of building specifications. And here is where I learned about the firm and my city's interesting connection to Miami. Carl Fisher, of the Indianapolis 500 fame, was an early significant property developer of Miami Beach. He brought Rubush & Hunter down to Miami Beach in the early 1920s to help design hotels, commercial buildings, and other structures which were almost all destroyed by a 1926 hurricane. 
I can't help but wonder - what did Preston Rubush and Edgar Hunter think, seeing this manmade structural feat that is Miami Beach modestly populated with hotels. How much were they inspired by other architects designing in the Art Deco style? Did their time in Miami influence Indy's 1930 Circle Tower and 1931 Coca-Cola Plant? Certainly all the aquatic ornamentation of Circle Tower's interior would point to yes. Some things we'll never know for sure. I never came across any letters explaining their process or detailing their time in Miami. In fact, most of their Miami records are lost best I can tell. Which led me to Miami. Partially a leisure trip with my dad, but partially a trip of intellectual pursuits in the form of meeting an architectural historian, who was a long-term reference patron of mine, working on a Miami Beach research project that I had become invested in (you can read the published work by Dr. Keith Revell in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians March 2020 issue.) While I didn't discover the lost archives, somehow I feel like I got closer to the architects. And I can see a little bit of that South Beach strip in these Indianapolis buildings. 
Some of my favorite Art Deco structures during last year’s Miami trip. It was fun to admire the same buildings during the day and at night, as many structures had lighting elements to enhance the facades.
