#1040-28 Barbara Capitman celebrates victory for Art Deco District 1979
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Victory for Art Deco
That the Past Has
By SARA RIMER
Herold Stoff Writer
The buildings themselves are younger than
most of the people who live behind their whim-
sical, color-splashed facades, but Monday they
became an Historic Place.
The National Register of Historic Places of-
ficially designated Miami Beach's art deco-in-
spired neighborhood "Old Miami Beach."
Old Miami Beach, most of it built during the
1930s and early '40s, is the youngest of 1500
historic neighborhoods in the national register.
THE SQUARE-MILE Old Miami Beach, lit
by neon and crammed with small hotels and
apartments characterized by courtyards, curv-
ing metal banisters and porthole. windows,
perches atop the new Miami Beach: South
Shore, a massive, $650-million city redevelop-
ment project.
The designation Monday by the Interior De-
partment's Heritage Conservation and Recre-
ation Service inspired plans for a lavish victory
party tonight by the Miami Design Preserva-
tion League, which campaigned to preserve the
neighborhood.
Old Miami Beach 'is historically
significant because it contains
the largest known concentration
of 1920s and 1930s-era resort ar-
chitecture.'
- Chris Delaporte
"I'm excited. It wilI be three years ago in
June that we first met over an elaborate
shrimp luncheon to try to save a neighbor-
hood," said Design Preservation League
(MDPL) Director Barbara Capitman. "We have
one gala affair after another. We have great
parties. "
On the porches and in the lobbies of the
Historic Area itself, the reaction to the new
designation was one mostly of bafflement.
"WHAT'S ART deeo?" asked Edward Fein-
stein, 80, from behind the desk of the Waves
Proves
a
Futurl:.
Hotel on Ocean Drive. "I'm too old to get eXC1
ed about things like' this."
Rose Silverberg, 81, of the Revere apar
ments on Ocean Drive, admitted she had nev,
heard of art deco. But when told that it had
do with bright colors and the past, she smile
"So, who don't like that?"
Miami Beach Resort Hotel Association E:
ecutive Director Murray Gold doesn't, for star
ers. "No one in their right mind just wall
around and looks at old buildings. They wa
to see glassblowers and cobblers," he said.
"These people [MDPL] are only for prese
vation. They don't care about investment
business and the future."
The 180-mem ber resort hotel associatioi
along with the Miami Beach Chamber of Con
merce, Board of Realtors, Hotel Associatic
and a group called the Miami Beach Taxpayer
have steadfastly opposed the Art Deco distric
They have argued that its size - one-seven1
of Miami Beach - is, too large and that it wi
harm development and tourism.
Turn to Page 58 Col. 2
'Historic Place' Status Ends
I ~1q
3- Year Art Deco Campaign
~fiM PAGE I B
"I'M DISAPPOINTED in the fed-
eral government," Chamber of
Commerce Vice-President Bob Levy
said Monday. He added, however,
"It's reality and we'll have to cope
with it."
Levy also said he planned to at-
tend tonight's victory party at the
league's art deco-style headquar-
ters, l63{) Euclid A venue.
The district's listing gives the
area "a certain status, a national
stature," according to a spokesman
for the U.S. Interior Department's
Heritage Conservation and Recre-
ation Service, which Monday an-
nounced the naming of Old Miami
Beach. As it joins 1,500 other histor.
ic districts, including those in Key
West, Tallahassee, Pensacola and
Tampa, its property owners become
eligible for federal preservation
funds and special tax benefits.
Chris Delaporte, director of the
Heritage Conservation and Recre-
ation Service, said Old Miami Beach
of buildings in the district. A prop.
erty owner who demolishes an art
deco structure to make way for a
new business establishment could
not take the demolition expense as
a federal tax deduction.
ANYONE RAZING one of the
buildings eQuid not use federal aid
to build a replacement without spe-
cific approval from a historic pres-
ervation advisory council estab-
lished by the Interior Department.
Tonight's party is planned to be
in a style much like art deco itself:
bold and gaudy and whimsical.
There will be jazz and guests in
1930s and 1940s-style costumes.
<There will be a moonlight tram tour
of Old MiamL.B'el\ch, scheduled to
beginat7 p.n1.\
And Capltman.already is plan-
ning a s.plashy New Year's Eve
party, to!be held in the Hotel Cardo-
zo at 13QO Ocean Dr. She says all
the roomsin-the-r940s luxury hotel,
which her son Andrew is in the
process of buying, already have
been booked for that affair.
"is historically significant because
it contains the largest known con-
centration of 1920s and 1930s-era
resort architecture."
OLD MIAMI BEACH, bounded by
Sixth and 23rd streets, the Atlantic
Ocean and Alton Road, includes
more than 1,600 buildings. More
than 1,200 architecturally signifi-
cant buildings have been identified
in the area, according to Delaporte's
office.
The structures feature smooth
lines, leafy and flowery freizes,
etched glass designs and neon
lights. Because of their island lo-
cale, they frequently are decorated
with portholes, sculpted mermaids.
and other whimsical regional adap-
tations. The light-colored buildings
were made of limestone frol1l: the'
Florida Keys. ..
Its new designation does not pro..
vide regulations for renovation. Nor
does it specifically prohibit demoli-
tion.
Federal tax penalties, however,
are meant to discourage demolition