The style of the hotel is an example of transitional architecture, bridging the ornamental styles of
Art Deco from the 1930s with the streamlined and modern graphics language of the late forties and fifties. The architectural firm MacKay & Gibbs was also responsible for the design of several other Art Deco hotels in Miami, including the Sherbrooke Hotel built in 1947. The Surfcomber is one of many historic buildings in the
Miami Beach Architectural District, also called the Miami Beach Art Deco District.
Art Deco is an
eclectic artistic and design style that began in
Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s and 1940s. The Miami Beach Architectural District was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 1979. It has the world's largest collection of Art Deco architecture and comprises hundreds of hotels, apartments, and other structures built from the 1920s to the 1940s. The Atlantic Ocean, 6th Street, Alton Road, Dade Boulevard, and 23rd Street in Miami Beach roughly bound it. ==Special events==