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. We’re highlighting important documents that tell the story of Miami Beach, coinciding with National Historic Preservation Month sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Art Deco hotels offered fashionable places to escape the Winter and Great Depression during the 1930s and 40s. But by the 1970s and 1980s, Miami Beach was in decline. By 1981, the city was looking to revitalize. The ‘old’ Art Deco buildings were appreciated by some and despised by others, making it a notable cultural dilemma that was the subject of a New York Times article by Jo Thomas on February 26th, 1981. Excerpts and quotes from the article are shown below in blue highlights, reflecting the tensions between preservation and ‘progress’ – many still evident today.
“Miami Beach finds itself embroiled in the sort of controversy that usually confronts much older cities: the struggle between the owner’s rights to destroy and rebuild in the name of profit and property rights, and the community’s right to save in the name of history, and what some see as beauty.”
New York Times, Feb 26th, 1981. Author Jo Thomas.
“This neighborhood is irreplaceable and absolutely unique,” said Barbara Baer Capitman, a design writer who is the driving force behind the Miami Design Preservation League, which has been fighting to save the district. “When we discovered it in 1976, nobody knew about it. There was very little understanding of the importance of the fairly recent past in architecture. When I first appeared on the scene, they called it garbage.”
Initial Investments
“Meanwhile, Mrs. Capitman’s son, Andrew Capitman, and his partner Mark Shantzis, convinced groups of investors to spend $800,000 for the Cardozo Hotel, three stories of streamlined Art Deco, with imitation pink marble and sunshades, and $1.4 million for the Victor Hotel, a tall building with a pelican fountain on the front. Other acquisitions are underway with the goal of restoring the buildings for continued use in hotels.”
Opposition to Preservation
The fight to save Miami Beach’s historic landmarks was a true uphill battle, with many entrenched interests opposed to this new vision of the city:
“One of those dissatisfied is Murray Gold, executive director of the Miami Beach Resort Hotels Association, who said “Miami Beach is 65 years old. George Washington didn’t sleep here. Neither did Abe Lincoln come through here. Neither do we have anything that represents history…. if you want to see old buildings, you go to an old city. You go to Philadelphia and see the Liberty Bell.”
Even a member of the salvage crew who was dismantling the property chimed in:
“People are asking the wrong questions,” said Leonard Feldman, one of the salvage representatives, as he sold large plates of glass etched with swans and birds for $5 each. “Is Art Deco pretty? For a few blocks, it would be all right, but it’s not pretty, and it never was.” He pointed across the street at the Berkeley Shore Hotel, which has a spiral on its facade. “It’s a monstrosity,” he said. “It’s like an old woman painted up; she’s still old. I feel like I’m in Cuba or Russia – they tell a guy what to do with what’s his.”
Demolition Protections Not Yet in Place
Despite the National Register listing of the Architectural “Art Deco” District in 1979, protections against demolition were not in place – those required local zoning regulations to be implemented. Sadly, the New Yorker was among the first landmarks lost due to the lack of protections. The article continues:
“The controversy between the preservationists and developers become more than academic last month when demolition began on the New Yorker Hotel, a 70-room ocean-front hotel now crowded against the Georgian, a huge new condominium built by Abraham Resnick, who bought the New Yorker to tear it down.”
Amid outcry from preservationists, Resnick and his business partners temporarily halted the demolition of the site, but it was short-lived; the ultimate demolition came just two months later.
“People need a whole new perspective about what’s valuable. People say we don’t stand a chance, the developers are moving down the coast, but shouldn’t there be at least a mile that’s a real neighborhood with real people and real history?” (Barbara Baer Capitman)
The destruction of the hotel was devastating for preservationists – yet pivotal in Miami Beach’s history. Its plight led to a series of incentives to allow adaptive reuse of buildings. The loss of the New Yorker further reflected the need for the historic district to have adequate protections.
MDPL’s members took this as a lesson – so much so that they incorporated the demolished New Yorker hotel into the MDPL logo, which still is in place today:
