Now Baker can’t quite decide what she’ll do with her towers, including one decorated in stars and stripes that once stood at the 13 Street beach. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to restore them to their original look,” she acknowledged. Baker, picked up two Miami Beach lifeguard towers at one of several online auctions with the intent of turning one of them into an outdoor office. “At night, I feel like I’m in a kind of hidden place.” Attorney Bought 2 Lifeguard Towers “It’s pretty much like a monument there,” he said. He kept much of the memorabilia he found in the structure, including a lifeguard ID, phone numbers scrawled on walls, keys and even an old copy of Playboy. Santos said he enjoys using his tower to write, take in nature or just have drinks with friends.
“I’m an artist, but I’m really practical.” His wife, Valentina, pressed him to buy the tower. I think she speaks to me - weirdly - and I think that she is happy.”Īrtist Cesar Santos of Miami Shores also thinks his lifeguard tower has a female personality.
She stands proud and happy that I was able to sort of keep her. “I still haven’t named her yet,” Schmidle, confided. Indeed, Jeannie Schmidle of Miramar, Florida is convinced the lifeguard tower in her backyard is feminine. “Because they are on skids, which allow them to be moved behind the dunes in the event of a hurricane, they convey a sense of animation and become toylike.” They work together as a cast of characters,” Lane said of his whimsical wooden creations marked by vertical stripes, groovy paint and unique roof lines.
“The fact that they have four legs and face the ocean gives them an anthropomorphic quality. “To me they each have a unique persona,” shared noted architect William Lane, who first gave the towers their iconic look and feel after Hurricane Andrew laid waste to the more utilitarian structures that once stood guard over the beach before being destroyed by the powerful Category 5 storm in August of 1992. Since 2015, more than two dozen iconic Miami Beach lifeguard towers have come ashore in the most unlikely of places - from an upscale resort at the Jersey Shore, to an Airbnb in the Florida Keys and even the backyards of collectors who possess the shared dream of taking home a piece of Miami Beach history. They are whimsical sentries - modern-day moai standing guard over the sizzling Miami Beach sand day and night - ready to deliver a much-needed lifeline, or even a smile - to the city’s 10 million visitors and 90,000 residents.