Sci-Fi Labs · Historical walk
South Beach throughout the years
Three miles. Two hours. Each card is a stop. On the gold line, drag Then into Now — the same sidewalk, two decades stacked.
Puerto Sagua
700 Collins Avenue
The Rivero family rebuilt a Havana counter here after the original was nationalized. David still runs it. Alex works the floor. City proclamation, April 2026: sixty-plus years on the same corner.
Kitchen fire July 31, 2015. Closed six months. Regulars came back the night it reopened. Sit at the counter. Breakfast specials until 11. (305) 673-1115.
Right now Café con leche. Same placemat. Same granite.
Then
Now
Ocean Drive + Lummus
5th Street to 14th Place
Hohauser, Dixon, Anis built the three-story winter hotels. By the late 70s they were SROs. Barbara Baer Capitman put the district on the National Register May 14, 1979 — first twentieth-century historic district in the country.
The Buick is not a set. Someone parks it because the street still lets them. Drag the gold line: 1980s traffic melts into the same curb in 2026.
Right now Palms, the Atlantic behind the hedge, cars as architecture.
The park is a sensor
Lummus Park + Ocean Drive
MBPD started with 25 cameras in 2014. Now a Real-Time Intelligence Center: 850 to 1,100+ devices, ~2,000 views, Motorola/Axon plate readers — not Flock. The network began on this exact strip.
Tallahassee wants ALPRs off state roads. The mayor wants to keep them. You can see the domes without a badge.
Right now Light, dome, “No Trespassing.” Same grass as the Buick.
444 Ocean Drive
Ocean Beach Florida Subdivision, 1912 plat
Four-story hotel, twenty-seven rooms, same owner as 436 next door. South end of the Deco strip, before the numbers get famous. Left here at 10:20. Coffee four minutes later.
Right now The south pin of the circle. Quiet compared with 10th.
Sunburn
1428 Alton Road
One-story 1940 storefront. Sunburn opened April 2024 — first Miami-Dade store, Florida-only. The glory-days wall is inside: waterskiers, Ocean Drive traffic, a peloton, Dolphins jerseys.
Medical card required. Or skip it and keep the loop.
Right now West pin of the circle. The 80s, tiled.
Lincoln Road
Washington to Alton · no cars since 1960
Carl Fisher cut it in 1912 as a Fifth Avenue for the winter city. Saks 1928. Soldiers of the Army Air Forces Technical Training Command marched it in World War II. Lapidus pulled the cars November 28, 1960. Art Center 1984 put artists in empty stores. National Register May 6, 2011.
Right now Pedestrian mall. Padel where the parade was. Luxury, still refusing cars.
Then
Now
1111 Lincoln Road
Lincoln & Alton
Robert Wennett kept the 1968 bank tower and hired Herzog & de Meuron for a garage that would not look like one. Seven slabs, 300 cars, ~$65 million. First week people thought it was unfinished. That is still the compliment.
Right now Padel courts in the shadow through mid-September 2026.
407 Lincoln
Edwin T. Reeder · MiMo
Built as Miami Beach Federal Savings. Thirteen stories, still the tallest office on the mall. Rooftop clock since 1956: TIME / TEMPERATURE. Locals called it the Clock Building. The Woolworth corner from the postcard is a few steps east.
Right now Gillie and Marc’s Wild Couch Party on the sidewalk through July 2026. Sit on it.
Then
Now
Colony Theatre
1040 Lincoln
Opened January 25, 1935 as a Paramount house. 1,200 seats then, 417 now. Miami New Drama in residence since 2016. Gehry’s New World Center (2011) is over the fountain’s right shoulder.
Right now Best place on the mall to stand still.
Community Church
1620 Drexel
Land from Carl Fisher. Walter De Garmo facade — scrolled pediment, rose window. Social hall as much as sanctuary for a growing island. United Church of Christ since 1957.
Right now Two minutes off the mall. Start the history here if you want the island before the postcard.
Then
Now
Apple, 1021 Lincoln
Touzet Studio
First shop was a tired Chrysler showroom at 738. The 2015 building had to remember the 1920s auto showrooms: keystone, glass front, neighbor scale. Saks sold this street fashion in 1928. The counter moved. The street did not.
Right now Watches on a street that has sold cars, tickets, savings accounts, and café con leche.
One loop
Morning. Lincoln Road is the lid.
Coffee at Puerto Sagua. Collins into Ocean Drive. Notice the poles. Cut west to Alton if you want the wall. Lincoln for the fountain, the clock, 1111, the church off Drexel. Do not only do the night strip.
Right now Same ten blocks. The job is noticing which layer is still load-bearing.
We have both lived here throughout the years. That is the credential. A pair of people who know what the coffee is supposed to taste like.
This walk is also a pin. Where is Paul? exists so a day like this does not vanish into the camera roll.