Here’s an urban pioneer who doesn’t just preserve a city’s history, but redefines and breathes new life into it. He stirs, and then jolts, the retail sector—creating viable neighborhood economies and vitality.

His urban influence is broad and deep–from Manhattan’s SoHo Neighborhood, where he renovated 15 historic structures and helped turn what was an emerging fringe art movement set amid 19^th century cast iron buildings into a bustling trendy neighborhood that lured top tier retailers, to redevelopment in historic  Center City Philadelphia and the Four Points Channel District in Boston.

He initiated his real estate career in 1976, founding Goldman Properties Company, with one employee. Beginning with brownstone restoration in Manhattan’s Upper Westside, he soon moved his attention to reinvigorating SoHo before spearheading the reinvention of South Beach eleven years later–where he restored and renovated 18 structures.

His Miami portfolio includes:

• The Park Central Hotel
• The Hotel
• Wynwood Kitchen and Bar
• Joey’s
• Wish
• Ballet Valet (green garage on Collins between 6^th and 7^th)

In Miami, Tony Goldman’s vision laid the foundation for the redevelopment of now emblematic (formerly under-utilized) Ocean Drive, the emergence of the Collins Avenue Shopping District, and the burgeoning Wynwood Area–where he’s turning a formerly derelict neighborhood with stagnant use and bleak facades into, quite literally and unprecedentedly, an internationally renowned open air art gallery—The Wynwood Walls.

His vision for Miami, and all other Goldman-touched cities, will be an indelible and evocative aspect of their legacy. They are greater  because of it.

Notes:

1. Tony Goldman is the recipient of many awards including: Crowninshield Award for Historic Preservation, Urban Land Institute Award for Excellence, International Parking Institute – Award of Merit.
2. His daughter Jessica and son Joey are co-principles.
3. Tony’s eyes were recently cast upon Detroit—a vision the Motor City might be lucky to see manifest.
4. When asked, “What would you say to developers who say, ‘I don’t want to deal with that kind of (historic preservation) complexity. I’ll just demolish the whole block and start from scratch.’” He answered, “I think that is an ignorant, greedy bastard who is taking an easy way out, who couldn’t give a damn about community, and who is strictly interested in convenience and the profit margin.” Nuff said.

Related BoB Posts:

• Wynwood and the Mega Casino
• Wynwood Urban Art at a Glance
• Here Comes the Neighborhood Pt. 1

Legacy Stock Retail; H&M in Venice - Photographed January 2012

Sense of Place

Legacy buildings (known as the legacy stock) tend to be historic structures (usually with architectural value) that are preserved and adapted from their original use to a new one, more often than not, retail. As a result, legacy retail is more typically found in older cities and widely seen in Europe and U.S cities such as NYC and Chicago.

Miami’s legacy stock is limited on the mainland but rich on the Beach–where Art Deco architecture is abundant. Back on the mainland, the Dacra-propelled Design District has considerable legacy retail potential.

Sra. Martinez, a restaurant in a 1920s-era post office in the Design District.

City Character

Mimo Boulevard District, along Biscayne Blvd. north of the I195, boasts a Miami Modern legacy stock comprised of a strip of motels and has tantalizing adaptive re-use potential. Downtown’s legacy stock cannot be overlooked but is not as architecturally distinctive as the DD and MBD. The Collins Avenue Shopping District and Lincoln Road Mall are the foremost local examples of a legacy retail. There, the City’s architectural history stands prominently in a veritable open-air museum/shopping district. Legacy buildings contribute character to the city, and their presence and preservation can have a tremendous economic benefit if adapted to retail use

Brickell's legacy stock sliver

Placelessness

Destination retail zones are quite different from their legacy counterparts. They are big, alluring, pedestrian magnets. Mary Brickell Village is an ideal example.

Cookie-cut by an architect, a destination retail center is scarcely more than a contrived shopping mall despite, as with Mary Brickell Village, attempting to look village-like.

Brickell CitiCentre will introduce an unprecedented destination retail scale to Brickell Village. NBC News wrongly reported that Brickell CitiCentre’s retail component will be larger than Sawgrass Mills’. SGM has over 2mm sq. ft. of retail space while BCC has approx. 520k sq. ft. Seems like the report confused the project’s gross floor area (GFA) of 2.89mm sq. ft. for its retail space allocation. Still, the project will dwarf Mary Brickell Village’s 195k sg. ft. of retail space.

Destination retail like BCC and MBV says nothing of the city’s history. It’s new. It’s the show. The City is an outsider. The sense of place is brought about by store directories. However, in the Brickell area, in terms of retail frontage, there is little retail alternative beyond street level frontage in mixed use towers. The neighborhood’s legacy stock is almost nil and large vacant land parcels offer blank canvases for such type of large-scale development.

As a neighborhood, Brickell is in the making. The burgeoning street level retail scene in the mixed-use boom-era towers will invariably interact with the destination-retail activity. This urban synthesis, wholly new and absent of any legacy stock, might result in its very own unique sense of place south of the River.

Related BoB Posts:

• Street Level Retail Activity: Brickell
• Collins Avenue Development Activity Expanding
• Spotlight on Collins Avenue Shopping District
• MiMo Motel Adaptive Re-Use
• Craig Robbins: Dacra (Revolutionary Development)

Brickell World Center - Foram Group

Central Business District Shift

Downtown was once the undisputed central business district of Miami. It has always been taken for granted that the CBD (as urbanists like to call it) was where the Bank of America tower stood completely illuminated at night. Yet, increasingly, class A office development is emerging south of the river in upstart Brickell Village.

Downtown’s Tale of the Tape

Downtown, a jumble of 1940s and 50s era low rises with sporadic office high rises, remains, with the exception of Met Two, dormant in class A office development. One Bayfront Plaza seems a distant dream though I’m rooting for the Hollos. The development of the Marina Blue, 900 Biscayne, Ten Museum Park, Marquis, Loft I and II, Viscayne, 50 Biscayne, Wind, Ivy, and Metropolitan Miami are mostly high density residential. the pedestrianization of the area has been slow to come. Retail activity remains niche in the Jewelry District and the periphery possess an eclectic array of electronic, clothing, and accessory stores. Had Lynx, a major proposed Class A offering, been completed, momentum may have been tipped north of the river, but it, like so many other developments, never broke ground, and Brickell Village, with the class A additions of Brickell World Center, Latitude One, and 1450 Brickell towers, is where big business is headed.

Miami 21 Atlas - Downtown and Brickell Village

Miami 21′s Say in the Matter

Though scaled down in height from the original plans, Brickell CitiCentre’s three upcoming class A office towers may be the catalyst for shifting the CBD south of the River.

T6 sub-types further explained

Miami 21′s zoning designation of T6 applies to both the Downtown and Brickell Village zones, but Downtown’s T6-80 designation allows for up to 80 floors whereas Brickell Village’s T6-60 designation permits, you guessed it, 60 floors. I’ve yet to see the actual height restriction in terms of feet for either areas. Floor heights can vary and a 60 floor office building can, theoretically, be taller than a 80 floor one.

Transect 6 explained

An interlocal agreement dating back to February 2008, between Miami-Dade and the Federal Aviation Authority, which makes reference to the MIA Height Zoning Ordinance, restricts building heights in the urban core to 1,000ft. It would appear that a 1,000 footer can be built in either Downtown or Brickell Village given their T6 Urban Core designations. Surely there’s a logical explanation for Miami 21′s emphasis on 80 floors in Downtown v. 60 floors in Brickell Village, but it seems to favor more skyscraper development in Downtown. The southward flow of office development, however, is undeterred and once BCC is topped off, downtown’s role as the City’s central business district may be history.

Related BoB Posts:

• Under-Utilization in the CBD (Pt. I)
• Under-Utilization in the CBD – Historic Designations (Pt. II)
• Under-Utilization in the CBD – Un-Designated Historic (Pt. III)
• Re-Thinking Brickell’s Interior

Oh Wait! and…

• Police Chief John Timoney meets Bahraini mothers [Dissident Voice]

Doraku Sushi is the latest addition to Brickell’s dining portfolio. It’s grand opening was yesterday. Kevin Aoki, son of Benihana founder Rocky Aoki, is pleased to present you with “the road to happiness” which is what Doraku stands for and probably how you’ll feel as you sample their tuna tataki.

Toscana Divino 

After a slight delay, Toscana Divino opened its doors this month. With its troupe of native Italian chefs, it sits at the most prominent position @ Mary Brickell Village, the center.  According to their website, they will be “Serving lovingly prepared Florence-style cooking, the menu draws its inspiration from classic dishes, found throughout Tuscany, and features fresh seasonal ingredients from local markets or directly imported from Italy.”