1663-16 Art Deco/Preservation 00006475
MON MAR 16 1987 ED: FINAL
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: 1B LENGTH: 16 . 06" MEDIUM
ILLUST:
SOURCE: CHRISTOPHER WELLISZ Herald Staff Writer
DATELINE:
MEMO:
BISCAYA SERVED MANY MASTERS
In several incarnations during 62 years of existence -- swank
resort, army barracks, old-age home and finally crumbling wreck -- the Biscaya
Hotel blew in and out of the lives of thousands who came to stay and play in
Miami Beach.
In its youth, the Biscaya was part of a breed of fashionable bayside
hotels that sprouted in the 1920s, the years of giddy optimism when pioneer
developer Carl Fisher lured settlers to a palm-studded mecca with speedboat
races, polo and high living.
During its dotage, when the Biscaya stood crumbling and empty, filled
with stray cats and vagrants, windows broken and yellow paint peeling, the old
building became a symbol of a tourist city in eclipse and urban redevelopment
gone awry.
In its final gasps, the Biscaya once again became a symbol of hope, at a
time when history had become a profitable venture and preservationists saw the
seeds of a brighter future in the city' s tired old buildings. By then, though,
it was too late.
"I never thought I 'd see this happen, " Beach Fire Chief Braniard Dorris
said, watching bulldozers gouge out the walls in preparation for the Biscaya' s
final demise. "It ' s a shame. It ' s a classy old building, but it ' s unsafe. "
The 242-room, 10-story Biscaya was born in 1925 at the foot of the old
County Causeway, now the MacArthur. Christened the Floridian, it was adorned
with a red-tile roof and ornate loggias in the style of a Mediterranean
palace. A grand front stairway led to an elegant ballroom with high ceilings.
In the tourist ' s mind, the Floridian was always associated with its
sisters to the north -- the Flamingo, Fleetwood, Nautilus and King Cole. The
Biscaya outlived them all. "It brings back memories, it sure does, " said
Sidney Saltz, 75, who was the dining room captain from 1936 to 1940, the year
before the Army took it over for a barracks.
He remembers flowers on every table, finger bowls, fine silverware and
big band music. "It had nothing but French service -- a la carte, " he said.
"We had dancing every night during dinner hour. "
After the war, the Biscaya went through a series of owners . It was run
for a time as one of the area' s first retirement hotels. Housing violations
piled up. By the time its last owner, Harvey Goodman, took over, the Biscaya
was a tired old matron.
Goodman said he planned to restore the building, but a 10- year building
moratorium in South Beach stopped him. In 1977 it was closed down, and it
continued to crumble until the Metro- Dade Unsafe Structures Board ordered it
razed.
In its final weeks, the Biscaya provoked a huge fight between the city
and preservationists who made a last-ditch effort to save it. Two people were
arrested when the bulldozers first went to work. "It' s a sad moment for
the city, " said Beach preservationist Nancy Liebman. "I hope it will teach us
to find ways of preventing this kind of thing from happening again. "
Many others were happy to see it go, from firefighters who feared to
enter its gloomy interior to Miami Beach publicist Gerald Schwartz, for whom
the building was just bad public relations . Sunday he celebrated its demise
with a champagne "demolition party" at his office across the street.
ADDED TERMS: history
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