Entire Playhouse is a living, breathing historic record

Andy Parrish’s Letter to the Editor, The Whole Playhouse Structure Should Be Saved, inspired me to recognize a pattern. Ellen Uguccioni was the City’s Preservation Officer who dropped the wrecking ball on Saint Stephen’s illegally demolished 1912 Chapel. We need to start holding the people we rely on accountable. She’s chagrined at herself?  Well I’m chagrined for her! Her Playhouse testimony is so wishy-washy, it leads me to believe that she intended it to be that way to leave a few possible loopholes for the usual Grove pirates and scavengers.

On the one hand she says that her intent was to include the entire building in the historic designation report, and that designation recognizes the entire history of what happens INSIDE the building, and not just the south and east facades. On the other hand, she says that the designation report does not address the interior as having historic significance because, “it’s been changed by a very prominent architect who belongs to the modernist movement,” and she recommends the building footprint for designation.

The work of the architect who did the Playhouse interior renovations, Alfred Browning Parker, is representative of Miami’s MiMo style. The entire Playhouse is a living, breathing historic record of the evolution from Miami’s Mediterranean Revival style to MiMo, Miami Modern — South Florida’s regionalist response to the International Style. Any honest architect or preservationist will acknowledge that this clearly makes the entire building — footprint, exterior AND interior — MORE significant, not less!

Making the entire Playhouse EVEN MORE significant is the fact that it is a THEATER, a building typology that by default encompasses the evolution of Miami’s social, cultural and fashion scene. It is the quintessential ZEITGEIST of Coconut Grove! If you destroy that, you destroy the very soul of the Grove. If you destroy it, and try to reinvent it, as Arquitectonica is proposing, you will fail because it’s impossible to reinvent something that took nearly a century to evolve.

After I heard rumors that the building is "too far gone," I called Tim Parsons, Director of the State of Florida Division of Historical Resources on February 13th. I took notes. He told me that he was on the State Historic Review Board that voted unanimously to nominate the entire Playhouse, including the interior, for the National Register. He told me that, "The significant architectural elements within the historic theater are intact and in very good condition, underneath removable layers of plywood, drywall and plaster that were installed during multiple renovations over the years — and that's why the building, including the interior, made it onto the National Register." In this letter from Tim Parsons, Spring is denied grant funding for his project because Arquitectonica's design demolishes the entire historic theater, violating the U.S. Department of the Interiors Standards for Restoration of a building that is on the National Register — https://tinyurl.com/yxsya97q

Even if a blunder by the Historic and Environmental Preservation Board led to the designation report citing only the building footprint and the exterior walls as significant, and not the interior, the Coconut Grove Playhouse is a single building. It's ONE building. There is not, and there never has been, a front and a back building as Michael Spring, Arquitectonica and alleged preservation architect Jorge Hernandez contend. You cannot reinvent an historic building footprint and the corresponding building envelope to create two separate buildings that never existed. But at tomorrow’s HEPB meeting they will try to argue that you can.

It appears that the 2005 HEPB is telling the 2019 HEPB that they may have botched the local designation report. The HEPB’s 2005 vote was 8-0. BOTH ANDY AND CHAGRINED ELLEN HAVE CLARIFIED THAT THEIR INTENT WAS TO INCLUDE THE ENTIRE BUILDING ON THE DESIGNATION REPORT. The State Historic Review Board voted unanimously to nominate the entire Playhouse, including the interior, for the National Register. The ENTIRE Playhouse made it onto the National Register because the significant interior features are intact.

The Historic and Environmental Preservation Board only has TWO mandates — to promote the preservation of our City's heritage by identifying and designating properties of major significance, and closely monitoring alterations to them. Adherence to the standards for restoration established by The National Park Service for the restoration of buildings that are on the National Register of Historic Places, such as the Coconut Grove Playhouse, should not be not negotiable. They are why the HEPB exists! The board members need not concern themselves with anything else.

If you want to know the REAL story on the "renovation" of the Coconut Grove Playhouse and the plan to demolish the entire 1926 theater, and how we got into this mess, click here: http://www.melissameyerarchitecture.com/in-the-news.html

Sincerely, 
Melissa Meyer Assoc. AIA LEED AP BD+C
Adjunct Professor Miami Dade College 
School of Architecture and Interior Design

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