1675-17 New Hotels KEYWORDS: ART DECO HOTEL MB COST
TAG: 9402150553
7 of 11, 37 Terms
mh94 BEACH HOTEL PLANS: SOME FIT, SOME DON'T 03/09/1994
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1994, The Miami Herald
DATE: Wednesday, March 9, 1994 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: LA LENGTH: 88 lines
ILLUSTRATION: color photo: The hotel designed by architect John
Nichols looks far more like Art Deco than do its competitors
(r) ; photo: The Ritz-Carlton proposal rises 50 stories above
a pedestal of parking (r) , The Planned Hyatt bends and swoops
stepping down like a grand staircase (r)
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: PETER WHORISKEY Herald Architecture Writer
MEMO: NEWS ANALYSIS
BEACH HOTEL PLANS: SOME FIT, SOME DON'T
What distinguishes South Beach from almost anywhere else is its peculiar
blend of the beach and the city, of sand and sidewalks, of volleyball and
Versace.
A new 800-room hotel for conventioneers doesn't really belong there.
But the city has asked for just such a building to complement the
expanded Convention Center, and six architectural teams submitted conceptual
plans Monday for the beach site surrounding the abandoned St. Moritz hotel.
Two of them actually fit.
Architects John Nichols, working for Forest City Ratner Companies and
Loews Hotels, and Dallas-based RTKL Associates, working for Hiliwood
Development and Marriott International,
succeeded where competitors stumbled:
* Each proposal welcomes passersby on the sidewalk, placing shops and
restaurants at street level rather than parking garages and service areas.
* Each nods to the neighborhood by echoing Art Deco details.
* Each piles hundreds of rooms on the 5.4-acre site without blocking the
beach with a hotel worthy of the Concrete Canyon.
* Each exceeds, but respects, the scale of the neighborhood, where
buildings range from two to 12 stories. The proposal by Ritz-Carlton, by
contrast, rises 50 stories above a pedestal of parking.
* Neither proposal crowds or obscures the 11-story St. Moritz, which
according to city rules must be restored. By contrast, one perspective drawing
of another entry shows a new building that looks as though it might tumble
onto the venerable 1939 Deco hotel.
"We didn't want to build something so flamboyant that it defied
everything around it," said Nichols of his Loews Hotel design. "The style was
supposed to pick up the charm of the Deco or Moderne details -- the glass
block, the scallop shapes, some symmetry."
Indeed, the hotel designed by Nichols looks far more like Art Deco
than any of its competitors. The two legs of the L-shaped building come
together in a 16-story rotunda, which like others in the district, is topped
•
by a tower and needle. A scallop shape marks the parapets in three places.
"We didn't want to do an Art Deco knock-off," sniped one rival
architect. "We didn't think it was appropriate."
Matters of style aside, the Nichols/Loews and RTKL/Marriott
plans succeed in one key aspect -- by respecting the peculiar urban/beach
blend of the neighborhood. Their plans make a view of the eastern horizon from
the street central to the design, giving arriving visitors and passersby alike
a sense that the beach is nearby.
"I want people arriving to get out of the car and see the beach and say,
'Gosh, Martha, we're here, ' " Nichols said.
The style of the hotel by RTKL/Marriott appropriates some of the
details of Art Deco, but twists or distorts them. It might best be described
as combining Art Deco with the tropical boldness of Arquitectonica. For
example, it takes the fins that mark some Deco buildings, like those on a
vintage Cadillac, and places them horizontally. In one section, the roof line
resembles a wave.
"We wanted the hotel to relate to the city and the beach," said Todd
Lundgren, principal-in-charge for RTKL/Marriott. "That is the way we
approached the design."
Perhaps the most anticipated design came from the father- and-son team of
Morris and Alan Lapidus. Morris, now 91, designed the Fontainebleau, perhaps
the most famous hotel in South Florida, a place legendary for its celebrity
appeal: It hosted Frank Sinatra and starred in Goldfinger.
Their team designed a Hyatt they called a '90s version of its famed
1954 predecessor. The interiors promise magnificence. There are guest rooms
shaped in curves. Like the Fontainebleau, the proposed Hyatt bends and swoops,
stepping down like a grand staircase from more than 20 stories on the north to
a height matching the St. Moritz.
But while the Hyatt takes pains to blend in scale, it adapts less
successfully to the pedestrian character of South Beach streets. Like the
Fontainebleau, a curving, sloping driveway distances the hotel from the
sidewalk. It makes clear that arrival should be done by car, not on foot.
Distinctions like this may be crucial to the city. City Manager Roger
Carlton promises that design "will play a significant role."
But the architecture cannot be the only factor that will decide which
proposal will be selected. The strength of the experience and financial power
of the applicants, as well as the returns the city realizes from its millions
in incentives, will play a role as well.
Over the next 60 days, a panel to be appointed by Carlton will review the
proposals and interview applicants. The panel is expected to issue a
recommendation, and the City Commission is expected to make a selection by
May.
TAG: 9401180066