‘Tacky’ makeover halted at historic Biltmore Hotel. Coral Gables says work not approved
An extensive renovation of the ground floor at the publicly-owned, privately managed Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables — one of the most significant and treasured architectural landmarks in Florida — has stripped off or covered over historic design features and decorative details on the building’s ground floor and was done without permits or authorization, city officials say.
On Wednesday, the city code-enforcement department affixed a stop-work red tag to the hotel’s ground-floor valet entrance and cited the hotel’s longtime operator, Seaway Hotels Corp., for doing plumbing, electrical and other work without required permits. The city also issued the company a notice that it will be in default of its 50-year-lease with the city for doing the unauthorized work, which was still underway when the job was stopped, if it doesn’t correct the violations within 45 days.
Seaway’s president, Tom Prescott, said he will comply with all city requirements and has already applied for some of the necessary permits.
Though the Gables is famous for its strict building code, which requires permits for even minor interior work in private homes, Prescott said he was unaware he had to apply for authorization for the renovations at the Biltmore, which is owned by the city. The hotel, which opened in 1926, is designated as a protected historic site by the city and as a National Historic Landmark by the federal government.
The hotel has also been known far and wide for its wealth of period details and the painstaking adherence to the lavish original Mediterranean-inspired design by the master architecture firm Schultze and Weaver, both inside and out, during a top-to-bottom restoration in 1986 after decades of neglect, as well as in subsequent multi-million-dollar renovations partially funded by taxpayers.
Coral Gables vice-mayor Rhonda Anderson said that, whatever the rules on preservation or permits require, it should be common sense that someone undertaking work on a historic building, especially one that’s publicly owned and as important as the Biltmore, ought to get city officials’ OK first.
“It’s a historic building. You have to pull a permit, and you don’t want to alter the historic features,” Anderson said in an interview.
The project now at issue encompasses the lower lobby at the hotel’s ground level, which includes the restaurant and bar, gym, bathrooms and gift shop, and leads to the hotel’s famed swimming pool, at one point the largest in the country. The lower lobby sits one level below the Biltmore’s also-famous grand lobby, which is not affected by the current renovations.
The work includes full restroom renovations and new lighting fixtures, including several chandeliers, in public areas of the lower lobby that were done without permits.
Perhaps more problematically, the project also covered the traditional dark tile floors of the hotel’s historic Mediterranean architecture with shiny marble slabs, while elaborate filigreed stencils and the creamy finishes on columns and ceiling beams were covered over with white paint and mirrored glass pieces.
On the outside of the building, the city said, unpermitted work included painting, gutter repair, painting and removal of keystone elements.
Preservationists and architects in preservation-savvy Coral Gables are aghast at the new look, which they say not only erased historic architectural details but is also wildly incompatible with the Biltmore’s look and design.
The first alarm was raised over weekend by architect Jose Gelabert-Navia, a principal in the Miami office of national design powerhouse Perkins+Will and an architecture professor at the University of Miami, who emailed a series of photos to city officials, other architects and preservationists. Gelabert-Navia said he was surprised that no one at the city seemed aware of the renovations, which he called “a travesty.”
“This looks like something done by a decorator they picked up in Naples, where they also run a hotel,” Gelabert-Navia said in an interview. “The columns now have these real tacky glass inserts. This is the kind of thing you would have expected in the Fontainebleau in the 1950s.
“You take a historic building and this whole thing is done, and no one sees it? To me the end game is that thing has to be redone. We can’t just let the barbarians at the gate do whatever as if it was their own house. It’s not their own house.”
Karelia Martinez Carbonell, president of the Historic Preservation Association of Coral Gables, also called on the city to have Prescott restore the historic design features. Prescott is the son of longtime Biltmore and Seaway president Gene Prescott, who is retired, and should have known better, she said.
“It is a destruction of history, what they’ve done,” Carbonell said. “It’s tacky. It’s terrible. It doesn’t even look like the Biltmore anymore. This is not the private property of the Prescotts. It is a public landmark. Whether they like it or not, they are stewards of this property.”
It’s unclear whether the legal protections under the city’s historic preservation regulations, which are designed to ensure the historic and architectural integrity of designated buildings and sites, extend to that lower lobby. If so, it would normally require review by the city preservation office. That’s something that city officials were trying to determine this week. Prescott said he doesn’t believe they do, but could not say for sure.
It also could not be immediately determined if the erased stencils and covered tile floors hark back to the original construction or were the product of the 1986 renovation, which required extensive restoration work and the importation of artisans from Mexico to work on the grand lobby ceiling murals and other details damaged or removed while the hotel served as a military and VA hospital from 1942 to 1968.
Those restored details were based on historic photographs, the original building plans and extensive research conducted by architects and the late historian Arva Moore Parks, Gelabert-Navia said. Restoration crews also discovered extensive original elements like tile floors that had been covered over with linoleum.
Gelabert-Navia and others contend Prescott should nonetheless have checked with city officials out of respect for the historic importance of the Biltmore.
Prescott conceded the point and said he is willing to discuss restoring historic elements with the city and preservationists.
“If they’re saying that even if not legally required, it would have been best practices to do so, I understand that,” he said. “I am open to that discussion. I’m happy to sit down and talk with anyone.”
Still, Prescott complained about the red tag at the hotel entrance and said it was “unfair” because it could affect hotel operations. Some arriving guests asked if the hotel was closing, he said. Under city rules, the tag must remain until permits are issued.
His worry, he said, is that it will remain in place until the more complicated questions about the affected historic elements is resolved, which could take time.
On Wednesday afternoon, the red tag was obscured by a plant that had been placed in front of it.
“I also feel that this is getting out of hand,” Prescott said of the stop-work order. “It’s not like it was a 16th Century fresco that I just blasted over. One opinion should not result in everything stopping and everything being reassessed.”
Prescott said he believed he could undertake the work without city review under the terms of his lease because it consisted mostly of cosmetic work like painting and flooring. That was a mistake, he acknowledged.
He defended the new look as a fresh modern update on the Biltmore’s design and architecture. Colors and cues were taken from the hotel’s historic features, which include chandeliers and faceted mirrors on columns. He said he deliberately asked that the tile floors be saved under the marble in case someone wanted them back in the future.
“We constantly undertake enhancements throughout the property while still sticking to historic standards and giving it what I call historic chic. It’s nothing nefarious. It was not done with malicious intent,” he said. “What seems to have happened is that some people do not like taking away from original character of the Biltmore.
“Yes, it is a bit more modern. It’s so different to what everyone was used to over these many years. It went from a darker, dingy space to something that is brighter and has historic chic.”
This story was originally published October 31, 2024 at 12:37 PM.