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1674-4 Tony Goldman MEMO: REWIND RESURRECTION OF THE HOTEL PERFECTLY BLENDS PRESENT, PAST Throughout the ' 90s many Beach hotels faded by the years have been given a new lease on life. Restoration has erased the damage done by time and neglect. At 801 Collins Ave., The Hotel is one such building. Formerly known as the Tiffany, this Deco gem came from the verge of foreclosure to a new life on South Beach. The Tiffany, built in 1939 at a cost of $92,000, was designed by architect L. Murray Dixon, a pioneer in Deco architecture. He was part of a select group of architects working in the Beach in the '30s and '40s whose designs would come to define an era. Like other architects of the period, Dixon was incredibly prolific. Hailing from Live Oak, Fla., he is credited with no less than 11 significant Miami Beach buildings. Most of these weren't of a style typically associated with Miami Beach. There were no Spanish baroque designs, imitation loggias, balconies or tiled roofs. These buildings had angular lines, flat sun decks and were largely devoid of ornament. Among Dixon's accomplishments are the Tides at 1220 Ocean Dr., the Victor at 1144 Ocean Dr. and five hotels built in 1939 all on Collins Avenue: The Marlin, the Nash (later renamed the Senator) , the Tudor, and the Tiffany. For decades, hotels and apartment buildings designed by Dixon and others went unnoticed. Recognition of the buildings' unique style and Barbara Capitman's crusade to save them led to the establishment of a National Register Historic District and resulted in a well-known renaissance, when many of them, including the Tiffany, came back to life. For some the Tiffany always stood apart from the rest. The hotels designed in 1939 on Collins shared the same design and footprint, but the Tiffany was always the crown prince of them all, " said Tony Goldman, who bought the Streamline Moderne property in 1986. Decades before Goldman bought the hotel, it ran under its given name of the Tiffany. Throughout its pre- and post-war career, the Tiffany offered accommodations that were more affordable than larger resort hotels. "It was operated as a moderate- to economy-price hotel, " Goldman said. "It was never a high-end hotel and for the last several decades it became a seasonal hotel. " After Miami Beach's vacationland boom years of the '50s and '60s, rooms at the Tiffany were rented for only six months out of the year. When the '80s came along, the Tiffany was facing a fate familiar to many of its contemporaries: disrepair, dilapidation and demolition. On Dec. 30, 1986, Goldman properties bought the hotel for $500,000 from the Chandler family just a few days before foreclosure. After acquiring the property, Goldman set out to be a hotelier. "I was a novice in the hotel business, " Goldman said. "I learned on the job. The hotel had several lives. We ran it as a seasonal hotel for a couple of years then we cosmetically upgraded it. " Full restoration would come late in the '90s, but before that the hotel was taken over by wholesale tour operators from Scandinavia. The Tjeaerborg company used the hotel from 1990-97 as a base for its tour operations. However, Goldman always had a vision of what he wanted the Tiffany to be. "It was always my plan to make the Tiffany a high-end product, " Goldman said. In 1998, after nearly two years and $5 million, the Tiffany was restored and brought back to life to operate as a full-time hotel. "It needed to marry the past and the future, " Goldman said of the restoration. "We utilized the physical exterior and dominant historical elements like the terrazzo floor, etched glass windows, and the 25-foot spire with Tiffany spelled out in neon on four sides. " As an officer in the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Goldman was dedicated to preserving the historical integrity of the property. His company, Goldman Properties, has been restoring historic buildings since 1968. "As a restorer I hold myself and my company to the highest standard. We need to be an example of what quality restorations must be. " Six months before the new Tiffany was scheduled to open, Tiffany & Co. notified Goldman that they would be suing for use of the name. The parties reached a settlement where the operating name of the business would be changed to a non-name, The Hotel. The neon letters on the spire, however, would remain. "The big neon sign was nonnegotiable, " Goldman said. "For me it was a preservation issue. The sign was an architectural element integral to the original design. " Today, The Hotel features 52 deluxe rooms and suites and a rooftop pool with a panoramic ocean view. Conde Nast Traveler named The Hotel one of the 31 top hotels worldwide. The interior of the hotel, as well as Wish, The Hotel's restaurant, were designed by Todd Oldham. Sixty years after it was built, The Hotel stands as the second incarnation of the Tiffany, a perfect blend of past and present. Rewind is a weekly series on the history of interesting places in the region. To send us information or possible column ideas, Fax 305-532-3009 or write to: 407 Lincoln Road, Suite 9-D, Miami Beach, FL 33139, c/o REWIND or e-mail: hcarr@herald.com CAPTION: ONCE THE TIFFANY, NOW 'THE HOTEL' : 'The hotels designed in 1939 on Collins shared the same design and footprint, but the Tiffany was always the crown prince of them all, " said Tony Goldman, who bought the property in 1986.