The Playhouse saga is a complicated mess
County Mayor Carlos Gimenez issued a statement regarding the City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez’s veto of the City Commission’s action in support of the County's plans. Mayor Gimenez stated, “Today, we are more committed than ever to making our project to bring great theater back to Coconut Grove a reality. We are fully restoring the 1927 iconic and historic front building of the Coconut Grove Playhouse and returning great dramatic theater to this place where theater began in our community. We have worked hard to celebrate the history of the Coconut Grove Playhouse, to revitalize this important gateway to the Grove, and to respect the village scale and ambiance so important to Coconut Grove’s business district and the adjoining West Grove residential neighborhood.
"In spite of these repeated and deliberate delays and roadblocks, we will pursue every means available to us to fulfill our promise to make the Coconut Grove Playhouse a place where our families and kids can once again enjoy the arts for generations to come. It is the right thing to do."
In spite and out of spite?
Mayors Suarez and Gimenez met late Friday afternoon over coffee. Gimenez was unwilling to compromise. Suarez offered an additional $10 million from the city to add to the $20.5 million the County already has for the project, but it was declined by Gimenez, unless they can go ahead with their demolition project.
Many people don't like Arquitectonica and if they were not part of the equation, there might not be so much of a fight against the County's plans. But then again, the County seems to be more interested in building up the property and adding the playhouse as an afterthought only because they are required to put a playhouse on the property. If that was not a requirement, there is doubt that there would be any theater as part of the plans.
The parking garage is a major issue with businesses in the Grove. People resent the sale of the Oak Street garage to the Terra Group, who made it an office building and took away valuable parking. And just recently many parking spaces were taken away from street parking, there are many more spaces gone than originally mention in this article. Add the parking spaces gobbled up by the valets and there is a problem. Parking is scarce. The new garage at the playhouse is desired so badly by local businesses that many don't care what happens with the playhouse, just as long as the garage is built. The two are tied together because they are both on the same parcel of land, so as the playhouse goes, so goes the garage.
It's a mess no doubt. The line is drawn. There are those who want the Playhouse, one of the last remaining pieces of history in the Grove, to remain in tact. There are those who want to build chrome and glass on the property and there are those who want a new garage at any cost.
posted by Tom Falco at 4:00 AM
YOU MAY NOT LIFT THE PHOTOS & TEXT. IT'S COPYRIGHTED INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. YOU CAN HOWEVER SHARE A STORY ON SOCIAL MEDIA BY USING THE LINKS HERE.
For linking to this one story, just click on the time it was posted & just this story will open for sharing - only through social media. Not copying and pasting.
6 Comments:
Although we'll always have our remaining old & interesting homes on our narrow tree lined streets in both East & West Grove. And in Center Grove quite a few newly well constructed MacMansions mostly containing many old and newly planted trees and lush greenery and a youthful generation pushing tons of baby carriages & walking their family member pets. There's a new bay front with marinas, the Seminole Boat Ramp, condo's and some really, really beautiful, GREAT parks facing the famous Biscayne Bay, tennis courts, police who have now taken to patrol up and down our streets. And hopefully a new interesting commercial downtown. The playhouse should be repaired as is. AS IS! The COCONUT GROVE PLAYHOUSE is in fact the very last SYMBOL remaining to represented what made the Grove unique. In this sense THE COCONUT GROVE PLAYHOUSE is a SHRINE, or taken into consideration as such by the powers that be. A SHRINE where the old & the new come together similar to an old town community center. If rebuilt AS IS & marketed as such by The Grove Bid, the COCONUT GROVE PLAYHOUSE could easily do what it has never done and become a cash cow. It is the responsibility of those who vocally represent & bemoan the loss of the OLD GROVE to compel/convince the powers that be to save this SHRINE, AS IS. Jobie Steppe
Miami Herald slams Mayor Suarez's veto of the County plan:https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/coconut-grove/article230488079.html?fbclid=IwAR2pSKlo7DMkX-gBDoVGLvJBESdcIrbUHhCH-C2xxnyd6XQESOj1ocmPtow
Gimenez needs to worry about county wide road congestion and read up on benefits of rapid rail transport than worry about the most historic theatre in our oldest neighborhood.
Paris is a world leader in architectural preservation, however they also know that preservation is not necessarily reconstructing original designs. The recently fire-damaged Notre-Dame has had several architectural proposals come foward. None of these designs propose to reconstruct the original design of the cathedral. Instead the proposals preserve what is intact and then damaged areas are replaced with new designs. In fact, the new designs are far from the original! What is preserved is the spirit of the building.
Coconut Grove has to face the reality that the playhouse theater is damaged and a building a new structure is needed! The current proposal preserves the front portion of the building (the one we see from the street) and only rebuilds the actual theater!
A quote from Voilet-le-Duc -"To restore a building is not to preserve it, to repair, or rebuild it; it is to reinstate it in a condition of completeness which could never have existed at any given time".
Le-Duc restored Notre-Dame 150 years ago when it had fallen into disrepair. Viollet-le-Duc chose not replicate the original, but instead to reinvent the building with a new design.
Links to referenced articles below:
www.dezeen.com/2019/04/30/notre-dame-new-spire-roof-viollet-le-duc/
www.dezeen.com/2019/05/03/notre-dame-glass-roof-spire-cathedral-miysis-studio/?li_source=LI&li_medium=bottom_block_1
The question I have is this: According to the article in today's Herald, the playhouse in it's current incarnation has failed financially three times, once as a movie house, a second time as a for-profit theater, and the third as a nonprofit. Why would we try to reincarnate the same exact thing again? Why not try a different design/setup while keeping the historic front?
12:11 PM Our President filed bankruptcy six times prior to succeeding to take the highest office on earth. Let's be consistent.
Post a Comment
<< Home