Igor B. Polevitzky (June 21, 1911 – May 5, 1978) was an American architect, most recognized for his contribution to the architectural styling of
Miami Beach
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter of which sep ...
hotels, residences and the development of the tropical modern home in South Florida.
Born in
St. Petersburg, Russia
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
on June 21, 1911, Igor Polevitzky was the son of Russian electrical engineer Boris Alexander Polevitzky and Katherine Polevitzky, a physician and microbiologist. In November 1922, the family immigrated to the United States as it is believed the father had some involvement with the
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
.
Polevitzky's mother Katherine, immediately received a research position at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
, Philadelphia, where Igor was able to attend in 1929. His father received a position at
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
through a friend. Although he originally studied civil engineering for a year and a half, he was directed to the
school of architecture
This is a list of architecture schools at colleges and universities around the world.
An architecture school (also known as a school of architecture or college of architecture), is an institution specializing in architectural education.
Africa
...
where he studied under the well-known architect and critic of Modern Classicism,
Paul Philippe Cret
Paul Philippe Cret (October 23, 1876 – September 8, 1945) was a French-born Philadelphia architect and industrial designer. For more than thirty years, he taught at a design studio in the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylv ...
; who was credited for having major influence on Igor. Polevitzky graduated cum laude in 1934 when the school remained
Beaux-Arts throughout his stay.
Upon his graduation in 1934, Polevitzky moved to
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
to help design a house for a friend and began what would become his career focus on tropical design.
Working with other modernists of the time in Miami,
Robert Law Weed
Robert Law Weed (1897–1961) was an architect from Miami, Florida. He designed many Modernist buildings in Miami and abroad.
Some of his projects
* Florida Tropical House, built for the Homes of Tomorrow Exhibition during the 1933 World's Fair ...
and classmate
Thomas Triplett Russell (who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1935), the firm began to bring a new
Modernist
Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...
approach to Miami and Miami Beach. At the time in Miami, the effects of the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
had begun to pass and the city was beginning to boom with population growth, tourism and a new regionalist architecture. The style was a response to the specific demands of the south Florida coastal climate by using innovative
passive cooling
Passive cooling is a building design approach that focuses on heat gain control and heat dissipation in a building in order to improve the indoor thermal comfort with low or no energy consumption. This approach works either by preventing heat from ...
design strategies. "This singular integration of concepts of Modernism and regionalism defines the nature of Polevitzky's contribution to the aesthetic of the region.
World War II hindered construction and the progression of architectural implementation in the region, when Igor was required to take a job as Chief Engineer for the
Army Air Force
The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
. Upon his return, he opened a new office where he formed a partnership with
Verner Johnson, and so began in 1951,
Polevitzky, Johnson and Associates in Miami. Long-time associates of the firm included William H. Arthur, Samuel S. Block, Jerome L. Schilling and illustrator J. M. Smith. Often-employed photographers included Robert R. Blanch, Jim Forney,
Samuel H. Gottscho, Ernest Graham, Rudi Rada,
Ezra Stoller
Ezra Stoller (16 May 1915 – 29 October 2004) was an American architectural photographer.
Early life
Stoller was born in Chicago, IL. but was raised and schooled in New York. His interest in photography began while he was an architecture student ...
and Earl Struck.
The constant theme in the Polevitzky's work was termed as an "envelope for living," which is characteristic of the many projects throughout Igor's career. One key concept maintained by Polevitzky through most of his career was the almost ambiguous blending of interior and exterior spaces which helped to relate the home to its immediate environment. Simple considerations like the sloping of roofs and extending overhangs on houses proved well suited for the intense sun and rain in tropical Miami. Then in 1939, Polevitzky introduced what he later termed, "the four stages of indoor-outdoor living" where his plans began to have a progression from the living room, to the dining room, into a screened porch and then outside; this became a common tool in his designs in years to come.
Polevitzky designed more than 500 buildings during his Miami career.
Havana Riviera
![Hotel Riviera (525406392)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Hotel_Riviera_%28525406392%29.jpg)
The
Hotel Havana Riviera was originally commissioned by its promoter
Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky (born Maier Suchowljansky; July 4, 1902 – January 15, 1983), known as the "Mob's Accountant", was an American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the ...
to be located on a traffic island near a high-income neighborhood along the
Malecón
A jetty is a structure that projects from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French word ', "thrown", signifying somet ...
(a boardwalk that runs along the coast of Havana), and was to be designed by eminent architect
Philip C. Johnson, then by Los Angeles architect
Wayne McAllister
Wayne Douglas McAllister (November 17, 1907 – March 22, 2000) was a Los Angeles-based architect who was a leader in the Googie style of architecture that embraced the automobile and the Space Age. Inspired by tail fins and gleaming chrome, ...
. The original project was called the Hotel Monaco and was designed in 1956. "According to the architect
ohnson the project remained un-built because the demands of the promoter Meyer Lansky were impossible to meet." Lansky quickly seeks Polevitzky, Johnson, and Associates in Miami where Igor offers to meet Lansky's unusual demands, and takes over the project.
Considered Polevitzky's most influential project, the Havana Riviera was designed and constructed in six months. It was the culmination of all of his years of tropical regionalism and his experience in hotel design; yet it wasn't even in the city that he spent his career addressing. The hotel was one of the last great developments in Havana before the
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in cou ...
in 1959, and the first international project for the firm.
Unfortunately, with the popularization of air-conditioning, many of his teachings were abandoned by the public in lieu of enclosed boxes of contained comfort. Alan T. Shulman, professor at the University of Miami explains,
"Cosmopolitan, well-educated, analytically minded, but somewhat diffident, Polevitzky was one of the most respected but least appreciated of Miami architects. His work was considered intellectual and avant-garde, and although he was well published, he seems to have made little effort to explain or popularize his approach. Thus, his adventure in evolving an architecture for Florida was an inherently personal one."
Igor's own reaction to the Miami climate; he had a skin allergy that ironically kept him in air-conditioning most of the time forces him to move to a motel he owned in
Estes Park, Colorado
Estes Park is a statutory town in Larimer County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 5,904 at the 2020 United States Census. Estes Park is a part of the Fort Collins, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Front Range Urban Corr ...
in the early sixties. Partially disabled and reliant on a wheelchair from a cruise ship accident, Polevitzky dies in 1978, suffering from severe burns and smoke inhalation from a dropped match in his home.
[Arthur, William H. Igor B. Polevitzky and the Habana Rivera Hotel. Online Article. http://whaiv.us/polevitzky-and-the-habana-riviera, 2014] The predominance of Modernism in Miami tailored to the tropical climate is still very visible today, and in the 1950s, Polevitzky and Johnson were at the forefront.
Projects
Selected works:
*Gulf Service Station and Hotel, Miami, Florida, 1936
*The Euster Residence, Pine Tree Drive, Miami Beach, 1936
*The Benson Residence, Miami, Florida, 1937
*Sailing Baruch Residence (the Tropotype House), Miami, Florida, 1938
*
Albion Building, Miami, Florida, 1939
*
Saks Fifth Avenue
Saks Fifth Avenue (originally Saks & Company; Colloquialism, colloquially Saks) is an American Luxury goods, luxury department store chain headquartered in New York City and founded by Andrew Saks. The original store opened in the F Street and ...
Store. Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, Florida, 1939
*Shelborne Hotel, Miami, Florida, 1940
*Center Hotel and Office Building (project), Miami, Florida, 1945
*Golden Strand Hotel, Miami, Florida, 1946
*Michael Heller Residence #1, Miami, Florida, 1947
*Michael Heller Residence #2 (
Birdcage House), Miami, Florida, 1949
*Samuel E. Schulman Residence (the Porch House), Miami, Florida, 1950
*Sea Tower, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 1957
*
Hotel Habana Riviera
The Hotel Habana Riviera by Iberostar, originally known as the Havana Riviera, is a historic resort hotel located on the Malecón waterfront boulevard in the Vedado district of Havana, Cuba. The hotel,which is managed by the Spanish Iberostar chai ...
,
Havana, Cuba
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. , 1957
*Sea View Realty, Miami, Florida, 1959
*Sunrise Tower, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 1962
References
; Sources consulted
; Endnotes
External links
The Florida Home: Modern Living.*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20110713124522/http://www.julietteguilbert.com/naturallycool.pdf Naturally Cool: Life in South Florida without AC really is possible
{{DEFAULTSORT:Polevitzky, Igor B.
1911 births
1978 deaths
20th-century American architects
University of Pennsylvania alumni
Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States
Architects from Miami
People from Estes Park, Colorado
Modernist architects from the United States