A 17-story glass tower has no place in historic South Beach | Opinion

As a child growing up in frigid Canada, I would start counting down the “number sleeps” right after Valentine’s Day until we loaded up the Chevrolet and headed down Interstate 75 to Florida for our annual two-week trip to Miami Beach.

I loved the sun, the sand, the ocean and getting into trouble with the other kids on vacation with whom I would have a fleeting two-week friendship. But as I grew older, I could never explain to my parents or even put into words my real love for vacationing in Miami Beach. It was a growing passion for its historic Art Deco buildings. And I have been fortunate to turn this passion into a 40-year career.

My father was a salesman and could not really help with my obsession, let alone understand it. As a Canadian, I collected hockey cards with the names of my heroes: Howe, Hull and Orr. But I would have loved to have had cards with my other heroes: South Beach architects named Lawrence Dixon, Morris Lapidus and Henry Hohauser, to name a few.

I attended university to realize the dreams of becoming an urban planner and then was fortunate enough to begin to develop real estate across North America. With my never-ending passion for historic buildings, I realized early that affixing a “way too tall” glass tower to an Art Deco masterpiece was just a convenient excuse for pretending that you really want to do the restoration. An “add-on” or a “have to do.”

During the past 40 years, I have restored over 14 historic buildings across North America. My team has won numerous awards for historic restoration and adaptive reuse. We have restored notable buildings such as the 1916 Knights of Pythias Temple in Dallas, the North Toronto Station, built that same year, the 1882 Gooderham Flatiron Building, also in Toronto and The Chambers in Ottawa, dating from 1867. Every building is different, and every building is notable for its location as part of the canvas of our dwindling architectural heritage. No building should be ever looked at in isolation.

The zenith of my career came in January, when we purchased the Shelborne Ocean Beach Hotel. Owning an Art Deco hotel in South Beach was a dream come true. I finally was part of the Miami Beach Architectural District. I was part of the Art Deco skyline that has defined South Beach around the world. Igor Polevitzky and Morris Lapidus were smiling down on this very fortunate Canadian. So were all the other architects who contributed to what has made South Beach so popular and the thousands of volunteers over the decades who have fought valiantly to keep the historic skyline from being destroyed.

Unfortunately, the celebratory mood came to an end when word came that the owner of the Raleigh Hotel was going to build a 17-story glass tower as the financial justification to restore the remnants of the Raleigh, South Seas and Richmond hotels. A glass tower affixed to an Art Deco hotel in South Beach?

Unfortunately, the city of Miami Beach had already approved an envelope on the Raleigh site that could fit up to a 200-foot-high building. I emphasize “up to.”

Don’t get me wrong. I like glass towers. They can be beautiful, and I have built them in several cities. Glass towers are sleek, they shimmer and if you look closely, they seem to gently touch the heavens above. But while the huge glass towers in Sunny Isles Beach pinned against the sky look spectacular, in South Beach, they would be an indelible stain on the skyline.

Approving the 17-story glass tower on the Raleigh site, hemmed in between the hotel and the beach is an affront to all those who have worked for decades to make South Beach what it is today. Mistakes happen. But it is our responsibility to learn from them and to ensure that we don’t make them again.

Miami Beach’s historic preservation ordinances are clear: It is our responsibility to maintain the integrity of our historic districts. The approval to build a 17-story glass tower affixed to The Raleigh will encourage the continued desecration of the oceanfront, South Beach and the city’s historic fabric. It is time to step up. Good development is good for Miami.

Let’s not make another mistake.

Mitchell Cohen is chief operating officer of Westdale Properties, with offices in Toronto and Dallas.

This story was originally published September 6, 2020 at 1:22 PM.