National Hotel vs SLS South Beach Hotel

Comparing the National Hotel and the SLS South Beach Hotel is interesting because they both stand in Miami, FL, and were completed in the same year, but they were designed by different architects.

This offers a unique glimpse at how rival designers approached projects in the same city during the same era.

The SLS South Beach Hotel is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 203ft (62m) with 12 floors above ground, while the National Hotel reaches 0ft (m) with 11 floors above ground.

Of course, each project may have faced different briefs or regulatory constraints, which we don't really know about and could also explain the outcome.

Both the National Hotel and the SLS South Beach Hotel were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Art Deco style.

Both buildings were completed when the Art Deco style was already past its peak. This makes them feel like late echoes of the movement, more reflective of continuity or nostalgia than of cutting-edge design at the time.

Both the National Hotel and the SLS South Beach Hotel were designed to serve as hotel towers, and that has remained their main use since their completion, serving similar roles in the urban fabric.

Both towers incorporate hotels as part of their program. The National Hotel features a 4-star hotel with 101 rooms, while the SLS South Beach Hotel includes a 4-star hotel with 142 rooms. For more details, see the official website of the National Hotel. You can also visit the official website of the SLS South Beach Hotel.

These two towers illustrate the many possible ways to combine structure and enclosure in skyscraper design.