Opa-locka, Moorish Revival architecture city in Miami-Dade County, United States.
Opa-locka is a city in Miami-Dade County, United States, known for its buildings designed in the Moorish Revival style with minarets and painted domes. The entire layout covers roughly 10.5 square kilometers (4.1 square miles) and features many structures influenced by Middle Eastern architecture.
Aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss founded the city in 1926, taking inspiration from tales in One Thousand and One Nights. The entire urban design followed this theme and shaped the architectural identity of the place to this day.
Streets throughout this area carry names taken from Middle Eastern tale collections, including Sharazad Boulevard, Sinbad Avenue, and Ali Baba Avenue. These choices are reflected in building facades decorated with arches, minarets, and painted domes that give the place a recognizable look.
The Opa-locka Executive Airport offers facilities for private aircraft, while public buses and the Tri-Rail train provide connections to surrounding areas. A personal vehicle is helpful for exploring the different buildings at your own pace, as they are spread throughout the city.
The city holds the largest collection of buildings designed in the Moorish Revival style in the Western Hemisphere. This urban planning experiment from the 1920s has remained singular in its completeness to this day.
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