DOCOMOMO/US FLORIDA IS the Florida chapter affiliated with DOCOMOMO/US -- the United States working party for the documentation and conservation of building sites and neighborhoods of the modern movement.
DOCOMOMO/International is a non-governmental organization that works for the DOcumentation and COnservation of architecture and important sites related to our heritage, which were built during the MOdern MOvement. DOCOMOMO/International was founded in the Netherlands in 1988. Its principal objectives were issued in the 1990 Manifesto of Eindhoven.
DOCOMOMO/US FLORIDA was founded in early 2007 as a response to the need to preserve our recent heritage in the State of Florida.
We are a non-profit regional society promoting research, scholarship, and education concerning the Modern Movement, and the conservation of buildings, landscapes the built environment of the Modern Movement.
The society provides a forum for the interchange of ideas among architectural historians, architects, designers, preservationists, real estate development organizations, academics, students, and others interested in the Modern environment and its preservation.
DOCOMOMO/US FLORIDA OFFICERS AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Enrique Madia, President
Jean-François Lejeune, Vice President
Martha Kohen, Secretary
Anthony Abbate, Treasurer
Roy Eugene Graham, FAIA
Marcia Lopes de Mello
Luigi Seta
Richard Shieldhouse
Allan Shulman
Sandra Suarez
DOCOMOMO/US FLORIDA ADVISORY BOARD
Jan Hochstim
Gene Leedy
Alfred Browning Parker
Terence Riley
Donald Singer
HONORARY MEMBER
Beth Dunlop
John O'Connor
Miami's Bacardi Building
Miami is famous for many things, including Latin culture, the Art Deco district of South Beach, lavish mansions on the bay, yachts, Versace and more, but many people are still overlooking one of the city's greatest attributes: the many examples of 1960s modern architecture.
Among the finest examples of blending art with architecture is the home of Bacardi USA, Inc. in Miami, Florida...(for more, please click here.)
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Manus House, Palm Beach Florida
The 48-year-old Manus house is the last remaining Alfred Browning Parker design standing in the extremely affluent seaside community. Its current owner, Peter Cohen, wants to tear down the structure and replace it with a British Colonial-style McMansion.
The Palm Beach town council has given the building a 60-day reprieve by refusing to immediately grant a demolition permit, in hopes a compromise can be worked out. Reportedly, the lot is sufficiently large to accommodate a good sized McMansion while preserving a fine example of architect Parker's work.
Meanwhile, the town's Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously on 18 June 2008 to consider the property for landmark designation. This throws up another barrier to Mr. Cohen's demolition plans. A July 8th vote overturned earlier rulings that gave the building a reprieve.
To view a thoughtful letter from the architect to Palm Beach Mayor Jack McDonald, click here.
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Miami Marine Stadium
Beginning in the 1930s in Europe and Latin America, a series of sport facilities had been built in which the plastic aesthetic qualities of poured-in-place concrete were exploited for visual effect. Pier Luigi Nervi’s (1891-1979) Florence stadium (1929-32) and Palazzo dello Sport (1958-59) in Rome pioneered plastic concrete shell construction. In Nervi’s footsteps, Carlos Raúl Villanueva (University Stadium in Caracas, 1950-52), Oscar Niemeyer, and especially Felix Candela, the Spanish-born architect who immigrated to Mexico (1910-1997), made concrete a genuine expression of modern Latin American architecture, whose sensuality and plasticity contrasted with the rationalist canons of the international style.
The 6,566-seat grandstand of the Commodore Munroe Stadium, named for Coconut Grove pioneer and boating enthusiast Ralph Munroe, was completed in 1964. Poured entirely in concrete, with a hyperbolic paraboloid roof structure, it consists of a dramitcally cantilevered folded-plate roof supported by eigh big slanted columns anchored in the the ground through the grandstand.
The project for almost seven-thousand-seat grandstand was commissioned to Pancoast, Ferendino, Grafton, Skeels and Burnham. Albert Ferendino and Hilario Candela, a young Cuban architect educated at Georgia Tech, were put in charge of the project. (A thoughtful comment by Mr. Candela on his vision for Miami Stadium -- past and present -- can be accessed by clicking here.)
Hurricane Andrew damaged the stadium in 1992. Engineering reports have since proven that the structure was sound, but need repairs, yet the structure has remained closed since then.
The Marine Stadium is perhaps the first recognized landmark structure done by the Cuban architects after their exile in Miami. With the new Master Plan for Virginia Key, this magnificent architectural work sample of the Modern Movement an important piece of Miami Heritage and History is in danger to be demolished, despite few years ago the mayor from Miami promised to refurbish the structure.
For more information, please click here for to view a lavishly illustrated article written by DOCOMOMO/US Florida Vice President Jean-François Lejeune.
The Friends of the Marine Stadium is working on substantive plans and alternatives. What we need to do is let our elected officials know that a renewed Stadium needs to be part of the Virginia Key Master Plan
The organization urges everyone to contact Mayor Diaz and the City Commissioners to support renovations to this important landmark.
Click here and write to these officials.
Comments? Click here to send a message to the Friends of Miami Marine Stadium.
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Shelbourne Hotel (1940), Igor Polevitzky and Thomas Triplett Russell.
The 1968 Gulf-Life Tower in Jacksonville was designed by Welton Becket and Associates with local assistance From Kemp, Bunch & Jackson. When built, it was the talles precast building in the world and remains the tallest precast, post-tensined structure.
© 2008, DOCOMOMO/US FLORIDA. (Revised 18 July 2008.)