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Home My WebLink AboutM-82-0245'v O„ H� Lo LOB FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OFSTATE George Firestone Secretary of State DIVISION OF ARCHIVES, HISTORY AND RECORDS MANAGEMENT The Capitol, Tallahassee, Florida 32301 (904) 488.1480 March 1► 1982 Ivan Rodriguez, Director Historic Preservation Division Community and Economic Development Metropolitan Dade County 90 S.W. 8th Street, Suite 309 Miami, Florida 33130 Re: Eligibility for Listing on the National Register of Historic Places, Sears Tower, Miami, Florida Dear Mr. Rodriguez: In reply refer to: W. Carl Shiver Historic Sites Specialist (904) 487-2333 We have examined the documentation submitted by you to our office on the Sears Tower at 1300 Biscayne Boulevard and have determined that the site meets the criteria for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The building represents one of the earliest examples of Art Deco style architecture in the Miami area and embodies excellent and distinctive features of that style as applied to a large commercial structure. The building, moreover, reflects the changing commercial development attitudes in Miami during the late 1920s, brought about by the growing use of the automobile which allowed the decentralization of shopping areas. Our office recommends that the Miami City Commission take into account the historic and visual character of the Sears Tower in considering the proposed zoning ordinance which would clear the way for the building's demolition. Tax incentives may be available for the rehabilitation of historic commercial structures such as the Sears Tower, and it would be unfortunate if this valuable element of the city's heritage were to be lost. Thank you for your interest in this matter. LRM:Ssds Sincerely, L. R ss Morre State Historic Preservation Officer FLORIDA-State of the Arts '0011, 6, ART DECO, frorn ID ' country (and dancing Roekettes who continue to like Rockefeller Center and the attract people to the "old Art Deco Waldorf-Astoria in New York), palace.' To date, 235 million paying came of age from the standpoint of customers hairs attended shows American preservationists. It cele- there. According to press releases brated a 30th birthday. Paul Gold- for Radio City Musk Hall's "Golden berger wrote In the New York Jubilee." that is more than the cur - Times In August: rent U.S. population. "it startled everyone when it was LA COUPOLE new — after all, what could be 91111- Miami now hen, as do most er than a 77.story skyscraper lop- American dues, a smattering of ped by a set of stainless steel arches Deco -designed restaurants. Is New with triangular windows in them? York, with the House of Reglne's. And with gargoyles fashioned after the WPA Diner Is Soho, and the re - automobile hood ornaments?" But, says Goldberger, it William Van Alen. the architect were alive, he would be having the last laugh. The Chrysler, with Its 32 Inlaid wood - ever -ant elevator doors. Its red Af- rican marble walls and yellow trav- ertine floors, has become the most beloved New York skyscraper. When Jay Kent Cooke, the Tele- prompter and Redskins Invader, bosgbt the building in 1979 for $89 mllllllooan dollars from Massachusetts Mutual. the insurance company had already spent $48 million on resto- retina. Cooke has added to that an- otl er t30 million to bring the build - tag back to Its'30s luster. Last year. Van Alen's original View were found in the building ar- chlws. For six months, crews of eleetrfal engineers installed the wiring, and glass artisans fashioned headissile fluorescent tuba — 580 of them — to frame 120 triangular windows. The press was emetic when there appeared "suddaaly in the might sky — a Nara at light: a seven -tiered golden crown, the big- gest Jack-o-lantern in the worldl" The Empire State, another Deco monument, also glows these days. it is floodlighted — a soft haw of light envelops It — and with the Chrysler building, mid -town Man- hattan is transformed. (At one time seos and cove lighting was every- where in the Art Deco District, too, as architects experimented with light — a new architectural dimen- sion.) Leonard's comments on the building: "It's a mixture of futurism and the Egyptian Influence. The best example of that is the entrance on Lexington Avenue, which Is In the shape of a sarcophagus." RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL. When Radio City Music Hall opened at 1260 Avenue of the Americas in Much, 1932. It was the talk of New York. I was almost 12 and 1 still remember the Sunday New York Herald Tribune spread on our dining room table with pho- tographs of the staircase to the tnersamine below the Ezra Winter mural; and the vast proscenium of the "grant stage." Forty-five years were to pats be- fore 1 was to consider Radio City a watershed of Interior design. I had long relegated it to unimportant old-fashioned "kitch" But a life- time memory was that Much Sun- day when. with my parents.) joined thousands of New Yorkers pulsing through the bright novel spaces — climbing the grand staircase. touch - lag the new sold wallpaper in the stored Rainbow Room. there is a new rage. Leonard, who also re- ported on One Fifth Avenue, where the two bars are from 130s ocean liners and the effect is heightened by mirrors (called "glamour glass" then) visited u Coupote at 2 Park Ave., A Deco office tower at 31st Street, this is "a huge open space where the lighting changes from dawn to dusk as one eats." With Deco Society president Weber. Leonard looked closely at the fix- tunes and banquettes and the pod - modernist columns picked up by the graphics. Les speclalites de La Coupole (French, like the origins of the Art Deco style Remit) Include choucr- oute garsfe ($11.95X cassoulet Toulousais ($12.50) and coq ou vin de Bourgogne(g9.9S), THE NEW YORK ART DECO SO- CIETY Visiting New York with Its Art Deco pleasures in mind an be sim- plified by checking with the New buagsc crass c a elf the 29-f°°t The ms iqi l re of the Chrysler builds the city's most beloved skyscraper glass sculpture chandeliers. (i . � =u y �� I remember my mother, one of the first women industrial design- ers, happy, excited at this great co- ordinated display of modern fur- stahlegs and an. Years later, In 1978, when 1 visit- ed Dotal Deskey, the designer of the Music Hall's "interior spaces." he denied that It was Art Deco. "I was just assembling all that was best that was going on." he said. That name year it was announced the Music Hall would close. A groundswell of protest from New Yorkers and theatergoers nation- wide resulted In not only a multi- mJllion dollar restoration program but a new live stage entertainment format and a new company. Radio City Music Hall productions. Along with guest stars like Gin- ger Rogers, it is, of course, the fa- mous precision, high -kicking, top - York Art Deco Soekty. a member gip of the mew Art Deep SodeWs of America. 40 W. 13th St.. This network keeps one informed of who to No and what Is gels` on. Leonard, for example, visited the Metropolitan Museum's exhibit "The fth Century." which features a wail of Lalique glass and fly leaf from the old cruise ship Normandle. He did so with Andy Warhol. friend of our Art Deco District. whom be had met on a tour here two years ago. Warhol has s large collection of Art Deep eholm and other furniture in the classical style In his "factory" at $60 Braadwsy. The NYADS, formed after the National Trust for Historic Preser- vation annual meeting In logo, gives tours and lectures. Personal tours of New York's tashlon show- rooms and introductions to Deen collections and galleries can br ar- ranged (call 212-675.0400 end ask for Bill Weber), though this is re• stricted to bona fide buyers or their representatives. P� s the Mismi News■ %1-M■ Ssturday. February 13.1982 Section YORK NE1lV GOES DECO The exciting proscenium of Radio City Music Mali. 'alf that was best that was going on e Barbra Csrotta•n• dtnmg race b.h,ad the aewra Oe$pn Pr.urvawr, league- and d,um beta for the Miami Beech Art Deco ,baa Kt, '-witty toured the eouaey end wrae . eon.. or .Pat. fw The Mum, Now$ on how other uua we,e m vmg their urbn plem" Probt.a,m rh,•..+ . Ir flow ap $tors oa a mare recent u,p. BARSARA C,a.,AA TMAN fww_r tv..re.., The redixnvrry of N.x t'',r. of the +srh tsa,os a n.va:¢ r,• .« • . . pact un 111e in the his APF!" fn«f fr•�+. ... is pravfansm Mum, Ine .�am.a �', .` rrpavatum of 50Ih anmver+Mr, n uat.: , nA ;! .. .. .P...., of yrl anulhrr 1""' -..t.'. are Game nt fh. Art U•••a ins to New Yurk 1Ken $CaLtizl•d W lnC +trl,ar' sObck am+ ta,t0(+Sa tinaa a=.•<:"•-n".' •.' wben theyy h+M tnere Tt , �'. r+e'•. i.s to Will— Wcbrr Prere•,c Deco 5-ictY -- the 1.ty'1 a-- 1T.;, • ^.� • :m a. « BiluM to the Bran. on Well Street, I., a .mP.0 "• h 'w'd' 'as has o $tatue by30s x .,Par L,am:cF .a _ .a. ve. ud is the South boa.. the yx'u Faasaa:.ca stCuns pleat to restor. ueco AW.—t ifre dentaliy. also Can or too" .s alrr er New Y.,.... pieces :,k. klata,.so and ':r:een , Aod. trtabl'. m oth. auldrds hke !e< }IR.'i',• flumal on 5 7,11 Suimt. Ine t'r :I Wanton arer erotlwai'a• on the Weal s,da. the G.E lk khas as :.e::asron n the SBs. era the Chi. Blidln= oa <'.nd Street, a:aern aepY scrams tram the Ckrysw eaa,as todeed• the New Yart mocb"Y ,a car.ne • en Vttb to s wrvey to determine oow many a,t 6uiMiass there are. aad toe aeawer u+ :+r tbauaeo True.. New York has its kaxa. tak BCn - ' er'm ekaaat bu,kb.g was oaf vWtem. But *n.+vaunsi+ New York aeve{Ppmeat ax wy w s,.as ,•w reaoxa- tiah. And New Yorh's CrventtoV'kv n and laaa bu resu 1. talY aware of tM Sure of Art . eat eona+a- ere the Art Deco anrsOloas IMAO'dui masm't$ to'— city Snow ia6 mid a New YOM kept re bane from Ws rem t aapMeece. Sae aewe$ troweling cesa• pasioa r ttur Ie.006•wiM Olg assets tea meairy. drfslsor laaterd Ifetoerlas. aeN+wnlyd thr ttiban Ddaa PtsaenalFsa taesre at ae AtrUee hascMean al the Mee fintei. Toe Are Deco OIetM Prsrvalw Deeebpeetti Pfau had tar tM pNpeeavtr Aaailec- ttue erbea MoaYK aiuir tar tM atchlt.aa AodM- tat. tiara.. ►taosaM. cite Ir ttr lose, lads <hret I,eppare's pleawei eaperrece a ism Neie was the eteit d s week of Osce aishtawie8- Coeues ra fir City evrr thr Td-b/ theCiryMnNr. wxick Wy b Brag b for leejiml tewN-okr sqn abraaa to esoi Yew York akles Axis Sepheri er. 'f1,CNtrakai WUSNNG Lae West Ihf fhrysM btrddiej et Gunstoe Avenue eta "21" Sued. "I"' hoes Grand Central Station, hkr w m..v ut!7 tat<o.arietatparates to. - _ ..Neer w Any OECD. BY