Because of the extravagance of his vision and his connection with the Florida boom during the 1920s, Addison Mizner has been described both as a genius of American architecture and as one of architecture's great frauds. An early biographer quipped that his flamboyant Palm Beach "villas" embodied a "Bastard-Spanish-Moorish-Romanesque-Gothic- Renaissance-Bull-Market-Damn- the -Expense style." Yet his work was praised by such notable figures as Frank Lloyd Wright, skyscraper designer Harvey Wiley Corbett, and sculptor Jo Davidson. Whatever the final assessment of his work, Mizner undeniably embodied the ebullient, gaudy, expansive spirit of the decade.

Early Life.

Mizner was born into a prominent California family who encouraged his youthful interest in drawing. A year in Guatemala, where his father served as an American diplomat, inspired Mizner's love for Spanish architecture and artifacts, a passion that was sharpened by a few months' residence at the University of Salamanca...