Villa Vizcaya

Villa Vizcaya, now named the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, is the former villa and estate of businessman James Deering. The house is on Biscayne Bay in Coconut Grove Miami, Florida. Deering made the Deering McCormick-International Harvester fortune, The estate is on the National Register of Historic Places, and is a National Historic Landmark. The estate property was originally 180 acres (730,000 m2) of shoreline mangrove swamps and dense inland native tropical forests. Being a conservationist, Deering sited the development of the estate portion along the shore to conserve the forests. The villa was built mostly between 1914 and 1922. The building of the extensive elaborate Italian Renaissance gardens and the village continued into 1923. The Vizcaya estate includes the gardens, native woodland landscape and a historic village compound. The landscape and architecture were influenced by Veneto and Tuscan Italian Renaissance models and designed in the Mediterranean Revival architecture style, with Baroque elements. Paul Chalfin was the design director. Miami-Dade County now owns the Vizcaya property, as the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, which is open to the public. 'Villa Vizcaya' is served by the Vizcaya Station of the Miami Metrorail. References