Vizcaya Museum and Gardens

The Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, previously known as Villa Vizcaya, is the former villa and estate of businessman James Deering, of the Deering McCormick-International Harvester fortune, on Biscayne Bay in the present-day Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida. The early 20th-century Vizcaya estate also includes extensive Italian Renaissance gardens, native woodland landscape, and a historic village outbuildings 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. F. Burrall Hoffman was the architect, Iwahiko Tsumanuma (also known as Thomas Rockrise) was the associate architect, Paul Chalfin was the design director, and Diego Suarez was the landscape architect.

Miami-Dade County now owns the Vizcaya property, as the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, which is open to the public.The location is served by the Vizcaya Station of the Miami Metrorail.

Vizcaya Mansion (on right) and its stone barge (on left)

The estate's name refers to the northern Spanish province Biscay, "Vizcaya", in the Basque region along the east Atlantic's Bay of Biscay, as the estate is on the west Atlantic's Biscayne Bay. Records indicate Deering wished the name also to commemorate an early Spaniard named Vizcaya who he thought explored the area, although later he was corrected that the explorer's name was Sebastián Vizcaíno. Deering used the caravel, a type of ship style used during the Age of Exploration, as the symbol and emblem of Vizcaya. A representation of the mythical explorer "Bel Vizcaya" welcomes visitors at the entrance to the property.

The estate property originally consisted of 180 acres (73 ha) of shoreline mangrove wetlands and dense inland native tropical forests. Being a conservationist, Deering sited the development of the estate portion along the shore to conserve the forests. This portion was to include the villa, formal gardens, recreational amenities, expansive lagoon gardens with new islets, potager and grazing fields, and a village services compound. Deering began construction of Vizcaya in 1912, officially beginning occupancy on Christmas Day 1916, when he arrived aboard his yacht Nepenthe.

The villa was built primarily between 1914 and 1922, at a cost of $15 million,while the construction of the extensive elaborate Italian Renaissance gardens and village continued into 1923. Deering used Vizcaya as his winter residence from 1916 until his death in 1925. During World War I, building trades and supplies were difficult to acquire in Florida.

Vizcaya is noteworthy for adapting historical European aesthetic traditions to South Florida's subtropical ecoregion. For example, it combined imported French and Italian garden layouts and elements implemented in Cuban limestone stonework with Floridian coral architectural trim and planted with sub-tropic compatible and native plants that thrived in the habitat and climate. Palms and philodendrons had not been represented in the emulated gardens of Tuscany or Île-de-France.

In 1910, interior decorator Elsie de Wolfe introduced Deering to Paul Chalfin, a former art curator, painter, and interior designer, who became the project's director. He assisted and encouraged Deering to collect art items, antiquities, and architectural elements for the project. Chalfin recommended the architect F. Burrall Hoffman to design the structure and facade of the villa, garden pavilions, and estate outbuildings.

In 1914, during a visit to Villa La Pietra in Florence, Deering and Chalfin met Colombian landscape designer Diego Suarez. Suarez, the designer of the landscape master plan and individual gardens, trained with Sir Harold Acton at the gardens of Villa La Pietra. Suarez originally planned to model the garden after a 16th century Italian Villa Garden in Viterbo. However, he realized the plans were not conducive to the landscape and opted for an Italian renaissance style. Suarez collaborated with Chalfin for the decorative elements of the garden. To achieve the aged look Deering desired, they incorporated, mature trees, vines, draping plants, coral stone sculptures, and antiques. Suarez wanted to give the garden an exaggerated perspective and made the garden mound, an artificial hill, the focal point. Beyond the mound, he created several room like sections: the central space, Secret Garden, The Theater Garden, Maze Garden, and Fountain Garden.

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