World Congress Day Passes Now Available
Read Time: 3 mins The 16th World Congress on Art Deco® is coming to Miami and Miami Beach in April, and we have options for locals who want to participate in the biennial festivities! If you cannot join us for the entire 14-day Congress, we are now offering Individual Tickets to our Main Congress programs in South Florida between […]
Our Positions at the July 9th, 2024 Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board
Read Time: 4 mins MDPL’s Advocacy Committee has reviewed the following projects on the upcoming Historic Preservation Board agenda and offers our positions below.
Agenda Preview: July 9th, 2024 Historic Preservation Board
Read Time: 3 mins MDPL’s Advocacy Committee will review the following applications on the upcoming Historic Preservation Board agenda. Here is a sneak peek of the projects to be heard and links to learn more. Have a comment about a project you would like to share with our committee? Contact us. To review the Historic Preservation Board Agenda, including public participation […]
Capitman’s Cardozo Leads Way (1979)
Read Time: 3 mins Andrew Capitman, son of Miami Design Preservation League leader Barbara Baer Capitman, was a leading Art Deco rehabilitation pioneer in the late 1970s and 1980s. In 1979, he purchased the Cardozo Hotel with a group of enthusiastic investors who believed in the resurgence of the city through the preservation of its past. Mr. Capitman instinctively knew that a 1930s revival would dramatically improve tourism.
Six Art Deco Hotels Facing Renovation (1984)
Read Time: 2 mins In 1984, six hotels underwent major renovations that would mark the second wave of an Art Deco revival in South Beach. According to a Miami Herald article written by Paul Shannon on July 8, 1984, Royale Group Ltd. officials secured a $13.5 million loan to pay for the planned renovation, which included painting and refurbishing in the original Art Deco style.
Art Deco in Miami Beach Gets City Protection Rule (1986)
Read Time: 2 mins Editors Note: The Barbara Baer Capitman archives “Historic Threads” project is partly sponsored by the Department of State, Division of Historical Resources, and the State of Florida. The year was 1986, marking a decade of preservationists’ efforts to protect a precious part of Miami Beach history. Their perseverance was finally paying off: A city ordinance was adopted […]
Treasure or Trash, the Hotel is Gone (1981)
Read Time: 3 mins Editors Note: The Barbara Baer Capitman archives “Historic Threads” project is partly sponsored by the Department of State, Division of Historical Resources and the State of Florida. Despite preservationists’ efforts to save the Hotel New Yorker, a landmark in the newly designated Architectural District, on April 23, 1981, the hotel was demolished without warning. A headline in […]
Our Positions at the June 11th, 2024 Historic Preservation Board
Read Time: 4 mins MDPL’s Advocacy Committee has reviewed the following projects on the upcoming Historic Preservation Board agenda and offers our positions below.
Deco district on the Beach could be draw (1981)
Read Time: 3 mins In the 1980s, Miami Beach faced a dilemma that would crucially impact its future: Would it turn into a city full of brand-new skyscraper condos, or would it be a revitalized city honoring its past with an eye toward its future? The following quotes are from a Miami Herald editorial written by Charles Whited on January 29, 1981, in which he argues that Art Deco could save the desolate island and move it toward a cultural revival.
Revitalizing America’s Historic Resorts: Annual ‘Back to the City’ conference opens April 13 in Art Deco district (1984)
Read Time: 3 mins The annual Back to the City conference was a significant gathering focused on urban preservation and revitalization efforts in historic American cities. The conference served as a platform for discussing the resurgence of residential and commercial interests in decaying inner cities, aiming to rejuvenate and preserve the architectural and cultural heritage of these urban areas.
Restoration Fever Spreads: Partners Turn Slum into Condo (1986)
Read Time: 2 mins In the 1980s, the apartment house was one of many undergoing reinvestment and restoration. It was also among the first to be converted from apartments to condominiums – ushering in an era of homeownership in the Flamingo Park neighborhood.
Restoration Fever Spreads: Two buy ‘jewel of Ocean Dr.’ (1986)
Read Time: 2 mins Now known most famously as the former home of Gianni Versace during the 1990s, in the 1980s the Villa Casa Casuarina was an apartment house called the Amsterdam Palace. At the time this article was written, the property was among the most sought-after in all of South Beach. Developers Gerry Sanchez and Amancio Victor Suarez bought the property for double its real estate value:
Collins Canal Recommended for Historic Status
Read Time: 3 mins Before the Venetian Causeway and much of Miami Beach was developed, there was a waterway that made much of its development possible. This waterway – overlooked by many for too long – is now in the final stages of review and approval to receive historic status by the City of Miami Beach.