1988 Flyer “LAST CALL TO SAVE THE SENATOR!” at Miami Beach City Hall on Convention Center Drive on June 1st. BE THERE TO WITNESS THE FINAL MEETING….Join us at our monthly Happy Hour at the Strand Restaurant (671 Washington Ave.) following the Commission Meeting. Picture of Barbara Baer Capitman being escorted by police off the front of the Senator Hotel at 1201 Collins Avenue on October 12, 1988 for protesting its demolition. Sadly, the razing of the Senator started that same day. How many out there have memories of this historical time in South Beach’s history?
Barbara Baer Capitman being escorted by the police off the porch of The Senator the day of demolition.Photograph of The Senator Hotel in 1987; courtesy of Wilson McPhert while on holiday from Australia.
What would Miami Beach be like without Historic Art Deco, Mediterranean, and MiMo buildings?
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Read Time: 3mins 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.
Read Time: 2mins 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.
