Even as buildings disappear, however, South Florida, especially Miami-Dade County, has been slow in its attempts to save them.
There are many reasons why, and one is that in the past few decades, preservation efforts haven't been a priority for large numbers of new arrivals struggling to "make it."
Recent efforts to encourage redevelopment of Miami's decaying center, known as ''urban infill,'' or the movement back to the city, have met with success amid the current building boom -- but that boom also hastened the demise of many old structures that were replaced by high-rise condos.
Finally, the rising value of land makes it difficult for investors and developers to justify preserving the old when they can make more money by building anew, and vertically, on a site.
This has been particularly true in downtown Miami -- in my opinion, the most important section in Miami-Dade in terms of its history, architecture and archaeology.
PRESERVATIONISTS
In Miami, historic preservation efforts were embraced relatively late.
