1628-8 Various Miami Beach P.Y
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mh04 SAVING MIMO-STYLE HOTELS 01/22/2004
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 2004, The Miami Herald
DATE: Thursday, January 22, 2004 EDITION: Final
SECTION: Neighbors BC PAGE: 1MB LENGTH: 62 lines
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: BY CASEY WOODS, cwoods@herald.com
SAVING MIMO-STYLE HOTELS
The historic 1950s-era oceanfront hotels in North Beach - some of the
grandest of their kind - are one step closer to salvation.
At its Jan. 14 meeting, the City Commission approved on first reading the
North Beach Resort Historic District, which stretches from 60th to 72nd
streets, mostly along the east side of Collins Avenue.
The district is the first to focus primarily on saving the city's Miami
Modern, or MiMo, structures that were built during the post-World War II
construction boom.
The Radisson Deauville, with its arching porte cochere, and the Casablanca,
with its Egyptian-themed columns, are among those that would fall under the
district's protection.
"This vote is a huge step in the right direction, because there is so much
in North Beach that is worth protecting, " said preservationist and urban
• planner Randall Robinson. "This is an important step we had to cross before
going on to the rest. "
Before becoming permanent, the district will have to be approved on second
reading by the commission in February.
Commissioner Luis Garcia was the lone vote against the district.
"I think that area of the district doesn't have enough concentration of
historic MiMo buildings to justify the designation, " Garcia said. "I would
have voted,happily for individual designation on those buildings, but don't
throw a blanket over the area and impose the views of a few on many. '
Other commissioners, notably Matti Bower, thought the district wasn't
ambitious enough. She criticized the city's staff for excluding a single
building, the Forde Ocean Apartments at 6605 Collins Ave. , from the oceanfront
part of the district.
William Cary, the Planning Department's design and preservation director,
said in the meeting that his staff had left the building out to allow the
Sherry Frontenac, which owns the property, the flexibility to add parking and
an expansion of the hotel on that site. He also said the move was important to
building community support for the district. •
"We initially encountered very stiff resistance to this district, and both
the community and the Sherry Frontenac owners felt that the Forde Ocean
Apartments should be left out, " Cary said. "We had to err on the side of
caution. "
Bower disagreed.
"The decision to leave that out should have been left up to the
Commission, and should not have been made at staff level, " Bower said.
"Though I realize he's trying to get consensus, and this was the first
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district of its kind - the first one is always the hardest, and once we pass
one, it's easier to pass another. "
• The preservation district is the result of six years of work on the part of
the planning department staff, who produced six volumes of research in their
investigation into the value of the area's architecture.
The grand hotels protected by the district, among them MiMo gems designed
by renowned architects such as Norman Giller and Henry Hohauser, were a sign
of the optimistic times following the war.
"These buildings were made with the 'too much is never enough kind of
approach, ' and when you live in a city you take for granted great architecture
like this that's around you until it is defined as such, " said Mayor David
Dermer. "When this district comes to fruition, it will be very positive for
the city. "
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