Conflict over Freedom Tower

[archifreese]

freedom tower's tower has got to have less than 1000 sf per floor especially considering the circulation!

[Roark]

Archi....I'm glad that you know that site...you have more authority to comment than 95% of those that do comment. I'm not certain as to what is going to happen with the "glass box", my fingers are crossed that it will be treated with care. I believe in goodness of people, and I especially believe in the goodness of architects, and that they will take great care in complimenting the existing evironment.
How about the Pompideau Center in Paris....many hate it...some love it...c'est la vie.
One thing that I know for certain is that you can't please all the people all of the time.
Another thing I know for certain is that Pedro Martin has hired Luis Ruvuelta more than once...so has Edgardo DeFortuna, so has Ugo Columbo.
All three of these developers have hired Revuelta multiple times.
Maybe Revuelta is the "worst architect in Miami". By that logic...these three developers might be the worst in Miami too. Time will tell...

[The Mad Hatter!!]

600 biscayne pulled its application today from the planning advisory board in order to try and continue to work with the community.

[BHK25]

Originally Posted by Roark

Yes, it is very expensive to use glass, and (Revuelta uses a lot) especially expensive the way that Revuelta does it...no corner support with block or poured concrete walls, instead, he uses interior columns to support the load, and the glass is essentially a curtain wall in each apartment. Very striking from the inside of an actual space...not so obivious from looking at a scale model or computized renderings.
There is a party at the Santa Maria Wednesday night, I'll try to get some snaps to show you.

Hey, thanks for the note. Very interesting, I'll be waiting for the pixs.

[rider_of_rohan]

I was just thinking, and wasnt this the site where someone proposed a giant red glass building not long ago?

[Mike19]

THANK GOD

Tower owner needs more time

Developers of a proposed downtown condominium adjacent to Freedom Tower make a change to their plan and request a monthlong postponement.

By ANDRES VIGLUCCI

aviglucci@herald.com


Averting an expected showdown Wednesday night, the owners of the Freedom Tower unexpectedly asked Miami's Planning Advisory Board to postpone consideration of their controversial plan to wrap a 62-story condo around the historic building.

Terra Group's Pedro Martin said the one-month postponement, to July 20, would give him time to hone his proposal and build support for the $500 million project, which has come under sharp criticism by preservationists and some Cuban American leaders.

They say the proposed condo's bulk and design would overwhelm the much smaller historic structure, reducing its significance and prominence on the city's bayfront.

''There have been a lot of questions raised,'' Martin said. ``We are trying to do the right thing. This will allow us to work some more on the design of the Freedom Tower and to get our message across to the community of what they're going to get, which is a project of the highest quality.''

ONE CHANGE

The developers have made one change to their original proposal.

Terra's plan had included chopping off part of the Freedom Tower's rear and attaching to it a glass cube which would enclose a proposed museum.

The developers say they dropped the glass-cube idea after Miami planning director Ana Gelabert-Sánchez called it ''inappropriate'' in an analysis of the project.

Terra would retain a portion of the rear, including the building's grandest room -- a vaulted former advertising and circulation office for The Miami Daily News -- for museum use.

The developers would still demolish the gable-roofed former press and composition rooms to accommodate a condo driveway and a new courtyard.

TOWER'S BEST CHANCE

Martin said the plan offers the best chance to save the venerated 1925 building, which has been vacant for decades as a succession of owners failed to find viable uses for it. Martin pledged to ''spend millions'' to convert the tower into a museum chronicling the Cuban exile experience and the building's history. He said he will soon announce details of a plan to turn the tower over to a new nonprofit foundation that he is creating.

Preservationists applauded the postponment, saying it would give them more time to build a case against the condo's current design.

''I feel that once the community finds out more, they are going to demand changes,'' said Rafael Peñalver, a Cuban-American lawyer and activist who is chairing a task force formed by Dade Heritage Trust, the county's largest preservation group. The group is pressing for changes that would make the project more compatible with the old tower -- a symbol of Miami's history from the 1920s land boom to the 1960s Cuban freedom flights, when it served as an assistance center for tens of thousands of newly arrived exiles.

Peñalver hopes to involve Miami Dade College, which once tried to purchase the tower and owns the lot directly to the south, in developing a comprehensive plan that will preserve the tower's prominence.

''It should be developed in a way that makes that corner of Biscayne Boulevard in front of the Freedom Tower a real centerpiece for the city,'' Peñalver said.

The preservationists also said they will continue to oppose Martin's proposed demolition of the tower's rear.

''Above all, you don't go demolishing historic structures to give them breathing room,'' said Richard Heisenbottle, an architect and chairman of Dade Heritage Trust.

Preservationists said they met for three hours with Martin and other Terra officials Tuesday and hope to continue meeting to hash out a more-compatible design for the condo tower.

EMBLEMATIC OF BOOM?

Martin's planned condo has quickly turned into perhaps the most controversial proposal among the scores of proposed towers in Miami's downtown high-rise residential building boom.

Martin spent the past few days scrambling to generate community support for the project after preservationists and some Cuban-American leaders launched an effort to force significant design changes.

Because of the Freedom Tower's architectural distinction and its historic and symbolic significance, Martin's project has become a lightning rod for criticism not just from preservationists and some Cuban Americans, but from those who believe the boom is just too much, too fast.

CRITICS' OBJECTIONS

Critics object not only to the proposed condo's bulk, but to its busy, wrap-around design, which they contend would ''swallow up'' the much smaller historic tower. They say the Martins' project would not only mutilate the historic building by removing its rear, but effectively erase it from the city's skyline.

Although the tower was among the first buildings in Miami to earn protection as a historic structure, the 1979 designation covers only the tower and base -- because its owners at the time planned to attach a hotel tower to its rear, which they hoped to tear down.

That leaves the rear portion vulnerable to demolition, which preservationists contend would hurt the building's historic integrity.

Terra and its architect, Luis Revuelta, said they tried to pay homage to the building's history in their design, which they say represents a fluttering flag enveloping the tower.

NO CONDO, NO MUSEUM

Without a money-generating companion project, Martin said, the proposed museum would not happen, and the tower could remain vacant.

Martin purchased the tower property from the family of late exile leader Jorge Mas Canosa earlier this year, after Miami-Dade County tried to buy it for use by the Historical Museum of Southern Florida.

The Mas family had paid $4 million for the tower, and planned to convert it into a museum and offices for the Cuban American National Foundation. The plan stalled after the family sank $14 million into renovations.

Terra -- which has separately bought a 10-acre plot from The Herald's parent company, Knight Ridder, for $190 million -- paid $38 million for the Freedom Tower and an adjoining parcel owned by Cuban-American businessman Paul Cejas.

TOWER'S MODEL

Built as the grand home of The Miami Daily News, then Miami's oldest and dominant newspaper, the tower was modeled after Seville's Giralda Tower by Schultze and Weaver, the architects who designed the Biltmore hotels in Coral Gables and Havana, among other notable buildings.

Except for its years as a refugee assistance center, and despite two major renovations, the tower has remained mostly unused since the now-defunct News moved out decades ago.

[Toucano]

Personally, I think a tower like Espiritu Santo Bank behind the freedom tower would look cool. The Parabola of glass would give the appearance that the building is sort of backing off the tower rather than imposing on it so greatly. Plus a height around 400 ft would provide a decently sized building, allow the developer to mix old with new and yet not subtract much from the attributes of the freedom tower. Maybe I just really like ESB too much and would like to see another one built that can be seen from the water.

[Dale]

"...the boom is just too much, too fast."

*rolls eyes*

[The Mad Hatter!!]

''It should be developed in a way that makes that corner of Biscayne Boulevard in front of the Freedom Tower a real centerpiece for the city,'' Peñalver said
----------------------
hells yea

[Roark]

“One fifth of the people are against everything all the time." -- --Robert Kennedy

In matters of anything symbolic and politically charged...it is somewhere around one half...

I think that it should stay the same as it has been for the last couple of decades...you know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Someone start a thread with all the best memories that you have had in the Miami News building in the last 25 years...I'm curious to learn.

*rolling eyes and throwing hands up in the air"

[mileageman]

It has yet to be articulated why exactly the Freedom Tower is of any historical or architectural significance. Is it because it was the Cuban refugee assistance center in the 1960's? I wonder if anyone of these preservationists will start a campaign to declare the I-95 overpass historic, since the Cuban refugee camps were there.

[Roark]

Originally Posted by mileageman

It has yet to be articulated why exactly the Freedom Tower is of any historical or architectural significance. Is it because it was the Cuban refugee assistance center in the 1960's? I wonder if anyone of these preservationists will start a campaign to declare the I-95 overpass historic, since the Cuban refugee camps were there.

Agreed. Interesting thought.

[archifreese]

Originally Posted by mileageman

It has yet to be articulated why exactly the Freedom Tower is of any historical or architectural significance. Is it because it was the Cuban refugee assistance center in the 1960's? I wonder if anyone of these preservationists will start a campaign to declare the I-95 overpass historic, since the Cuban refugee camps were there.

also agreed, its from the 20's, its a copy of a Spanish tower, and it saw a short (and somewhat unpleasant) life as an immigration/refugee area. Miami seems to want to have 'historical fabric' so bad it clings to some little things like the tower at the PAC, the something about mary house, and the house that Solaris is keeping to the east - not to mention SOBE w/the coral house on 9/collins. Miami has better past/present/future than most of these things.

Some form of development around the tower will help it, if you must - KEEP FREEDOM TOWER BUT DON'T KEEP IT ISOLATED THATS WHY ITS VACANT IN THE FIRST PLACE.

[Dale]

And build a history, beginning now.

[Bobdreamz]

Nobody is advocating prohibiting development and it doesn't mattter if it's a copy or not. The reality is that it is there and it does have historical significance, first as home to the Miami News and then as a symbol for Cuban refugees in the 60's. It's called the Freedom tower for a reason and as an immigrant group that is an integral part of our city should their attachment to the tower that symbolized their ordeals be trivialized and their opinions discarded all in the name of "progress"?
Regardless of it's significance to any group, do we have to either bury or bulldoze everything that is remotely considered old in this city?
People aren't complaining about development they're complaining about the design which literally smothers and overbears the tower. The developers can certainly come up with a design that can compliment the site instead of another hulking massive slab.

[Dale]

Yeah, but some of us are already nostalgic for hulking massive slabs, of which Miami has too few.

[Bobdreamz]

lol Dale!

[archifreese]

Originally Posted by Bobdreamz

Nobody is advocating prohibiting development and it doesn't mattter if it's a copy or not. The reality is that it is there and it does have historical significance, first as home to the Miami News and then as a symbol for Cuban refugees in the 60's. It's called the Freedom tower for a reason and as an immigrant group that is an integral part of our city should their attachment to the tower that symbolized their ordeals be trivialized and their opinions discarded all in the name of "progress"?
Regardless of it's significance to any group, do we have to either bury or bulldoze everything that is remotely considered old in this city?
People aren't complaining about development they're complaining about the design which literally smothers and overbears the tower. The developers can certainly come up with a design that can compliment the site instead of another hulking massive slab.

you make a very good point, its just frustrating sometimes to see the things miami deems historic, and i dont think age is a qualification for anything other than age, for most of the historic 'old' buildings in this city are younger than my grandparents and they arent historically preserved. but i do agree a significantly more respectful, considerate mass could be worked out for this site.
Plus its a very Miami thing to care about something only when it may be demolished (never mind decades of neglect/abandonment), i mean the coral house on 9/collins (again) just like freedom tower 2 small 2 work but now its historically relevent because a Miami Beach hotel entrepreneur lived there....its been vacant for years.

[lauderdalegator]

That design is hideous and far too busy to surround a landmark historic building!
It is possible to build a very tall skyscraper adjacent to a landmark without destroying it. One of the best examples of this is the John Hancock Tower in Boston by I.M. Pei. The building's smooth surface mirrors the nearby historic buildings and the glass allows the building to blend into the sky, making it appear less massive. Below are some pix of the John Hancock Tower.

John Hancock Tower, Boston


Since Hancock is an office tower no balconies were desired. If the condo tower must have balconies they should be recessed into a flush glass facade to create as little distraction as possible. The new building should probably be two narrow rectangular buildings instead of one massive thing wrapping around the building. Maybe the developer should have chosen an architect like Norman Foster or Richard Meier. Anyway, that's just my opinion.

THIS CANNOT BE JUST ANOTHER UGLY CONDO WITH BUSY BALCONIES ALL OVER THE PLACE!

[nimbyhater]

Originally Posted by lauderdalegator

THIS CANNOT BE JUST ANOTHER UGLY CONDO WITH BUSY BALCONIES ALL OVER THE PLACE!

but we all know thats wat its gonna end up being... that 80's proposal we saw a while back that was just a big black rectangular building would have been perfect...