walgreens

address: 200 east flagler street, miami, united states
architects: zimmerman, saxe and mcbride
date: 1936

La Epoca Building originally a Walgreens drugstore, and the A. I. DuPont Building diagonally across the intersection, illustrate the wide range of American Modern architecture in the 1930s. Where the DuPont Building has the formal gravitas, vertical articulation, and Art Deco ornament of a modern landmark, the striking, streamlined horizontality of La Epoca bears the functionalist influence of the international style. Its starck platonic forms impart an almost factorylike appareance, an imagery perhaps favored hygiene at the time. The continuous banded windows, a trademark of the international style, were remrkable for 1930s Miami. The interior is arranged around an impressive 3-story atrium. While few of the interior details and finishes remain, save for the fine double stairway and its railings, this endures as one of the grandest retail spaces in Miami.

Allan T. Shulman, Randall C. Robinson Jr., James F. Donnelly