Playhouse board resists historic status

The board of the Coconut Grove Playhouse, which was recently declared a protected historic landmark, plans to appeal the decision.

BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI
aviglucci@herald.com

One month after Miami's preservation board declared the Coconut Grove Playhouse a historic landmark, the nonprofit theater's board of directors is asking city commissioners to set aside the designation as ``arbitrary and capricious.''

In a 13-page appeal scheduled to be considered by the commission Thursday, playhouse lawyers argue that the 1926 playhouse building, widely regarded as one of the finest examples of 1920s Mediterranean Revival architecture in Miami, retains little historic or architectural value.


PATRICK FARRELL/HERALD STAFF
OFF-STAGE DRAMA: The Coconut Grove Playhouse, built in 1926, is at the center of a fight between reservationists and developers.

The theater's stance sets up a new confrontation with preservationists and Grove activists who launched a campaign to save the building earlier this year, after a member of the playhouse board publicly suggested it would be torn down to make way for a new theater, condos and a parking garage.

The activists and preservationists say they are infuriated by the appeal, in particular by what some regard as its pugnacious tone, and contend the playhouse directors have gone back on a pledge to support designation.

''There is no excuse for this,'' said Miami historian Arva Moore Parks, who maintains copious files on the playhouse's storied history and calls the building one of themost important in South Florida. ``I don't understand how a public institution that relies on public goodwill would write this kind of document.''

City administrators, who supported the historic designation, said they will advise commissioners to uphold it.

Playhouse administrators, however, say the preservation board's decision was so flawed it left them little choice but to appeal. They say they were willing to accept the designation so long as it was limited to the building's elaborate rococo entrance and two flanking exterior walls, but contend the rest of the structure has been so markedly altered over the years it no longer merits landmark status.

''We do not intend to be combative,'' said playhouse board chair Shelly Spivack. ``Our position has never changed. We absolutely concur to have the facade of the playhouse designated as historical.''

But documents on file at the Florida Department of State and provided by Grove activists show that on several occasions, when the playhouse applied for state grants, administrators boasted of the building's historic and architectural value.

HISTORICAL `ELEMENTS'

In one letter accompanying an application for state preservation money in 1999, the playhouse's then-general manager listed several ''historically significant elements'' that state officials and the playhouse agreed merited saving during a proposed renovation.

Among them: Not just exterior facades but also the proscenium around the stage, the main auditorium cornice, the ''volume'' of the main auditorium, columns in the concession area and the back wall of the mezzanine lobby.

At the time, the building was owned by the state, which later transferred ownership to the non-profit board.

Playhouse artistic director Arnold Mittelman said he doesn't recall details of the application. But he said the manager who signed the letter, who has since left the playhouse, was not qualified to judge the building's historic merits.

''With all due respect to my former general manager, he had no credentials to qualify,'' Mittelman said. ``He may have simply been trying to get a grant.''

Nonetheless, David Ferro, administrator of the state's Architectural Preservation Service, said he had toured the facility at the time, and the letter was accurate. ''We identified those elements that contributed to the historic and architectural significance of the building,'' he said, adding that the playhouse did not get the grant.

The playhouse's legal challenge also focuses in part on the inclusion in the designation of a parking lot that was not part of the original playhouse property and has no historic value. Preservation board members said they had to include it because they are required to go by the property's legal description on record, which includes the lot. Some members said the parking area could later be carved out with a fresh survey.

The lot's inclusion in the designation, however, makes it ''fatally flawed,'' wrote playhouse lawyers Gabriel Nieto and Michael Chavies, a former judge who serves as secretary on the theater's board.

Preservationists believe the playhouse is using the parking lot issue to scuttle the entire designation. If the playhouse appeal succeeds, they say, it would leave the whole building vulnerable to demolition.

The activists have also strongly opposed designating only the building's facade, an idea the historic board rejected as counter to its policy and the city's preservation ordinance.

Board members noted designation does not preclude the playhouse from later returning to the city with plans for additions or alterations that may include partial demolition.

''It should be designated in whole and not in little parts,'' said Richard Heisenbottle, an architect specializing in preservation who is president of Dade Heritage Trust, Miami-Dade County's largest preservation group. ``That would be a serious mistake and a dangerous precedent.''

Heisenbottle and other preservationists say the theater administration's resistance to historic status is especially galling because the playhouse has received ample public money over the years -- including about $20 million from the state of Florida before it turned over the property to the theater board last year, according to state documents. Some of that money went into repairs and renovations.

RESTORATION FUNDS

The theater is also in line for $5 million from a city fund and $15 million from the Building Better Communities county bond issue specifically earmarked for restoration.

''The public deserves that building be preserved, particularly when our money went into saving that building,'' historian Parks said.

Playhouse administrators have long contended that the building, built as a movie house and converted for live theater in the 1950s, is severely deteriorated and unsuited to modern productions. They say the playhouse is struggling economically and needs income from redevelopment to build new auditoriums and survive.

''It's in everyone's best interest to make sure the playhouse continues to be functional,'' board chair Spivak said. ``We need a facility that will help us make that happen.''

The playhouse hired a Miami Beach preservation architect, Arthur Marcus, who concluded only the entrance and exterior walls retain enough of the original detailing to merit historic status. The interior and the rest of the building include ''incongruous'' additions and renovations in a modern style that clash with the original Mediterranean Revival design by noted architect Richard Kiehnel, and have no historic value, Marcus said.

Preservationists also say the playhouse appeal misrepresents the condition of the building's exterior.

The document claims the exterior was significantly altered during the 1950s conversion to live theater with the addition of Modernist elements that left it a ``mishmash of styles.''

But comparison of photos from the 1920s with the present exterior indicates the only thing missing is a decorative parapet over the front entrance that preservationists say can be easily replicated, and storefront entrances that have been boarded up or covered with masonry.

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