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.
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.
While searching through the Barbara Baer Capitman archives, an article from The Atlantic Journal, written by Andrew Capitman himself, we found an article from 1979 where Capitman discusses his plan to restore and operate the Cardozo Hotel for a successful future of increased revenues and profits.
Andrew Capitman knew that restoring the Cardozo Hotel was an essential move. He wanted to recreate an environment where people could truly appreciate the hidden gem that Miami Beach was:
Mr. Capitman explains how in the 1930s the Cardozo Hotel was at its prime:
Bringing back the aesthetics and liveliness of the 1930s was the game plan of the 1980s:
Andrew Capitman believed that Miami Beach’s only problem was ironically its very solution: