Mar 29, 2009, 07:45 PM
Posted on Sat, Mar. 28, 2009
Bacardi's move puts its famed buildings' future in question
BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI
Later this year, Bacardi USA will move out of the striking, mural-bedecked buildings -- monuments, really -- it has occupied on Biscayne Boulevard since the distiller's departure from Cuba, lock, stock and rum barrel, after the 1959 Revolution.
With construction well under way on its new Coral Gables headquarters -- inside the shell of a bland, neo-Mediterranean developer's special -- a suddenly pressing question is being aired in preservation and architectural circles:
What will become of the celebrated buildings once Bacardi goes?
Some architects, preservationists and historians regard them as the most significant structures -- architecturally, culturally, historically -- of the 1960s in Miami.
''Needless to say, there is great concern,'' said Ivan Rodriguez, former head of historic preservation for Miami-Dade County and member of an informal group of architects and preservationists exploring ways to safeguard the buildings' future. ``It's one of our major treasures.''
The tightly controlled, privately held Bacardi won't talk about its plans. Company officials have rebuffed inquiries about the fate of the buildings, letting a letter from the preservationists last year go unanswered, and declining an interview request from a reporter as ``premature.''
''We're considering a variety of options,'' said Bacardi spokeswoman Patricia Neal, adding only: ``We appreciate the fact that people love our building. We love it, too.''
Rarely has a company been so closely identified with its buildings as Bacardi, which has built a legacy of landmark structures from Cuba to Mexico and Bermuda.
In Miami, it's an ensemble of two. The first is a slender eight-story tower, wider than it is deep, facing the Boulevard at 21st Street. Built in 1963, it was designed by Enrique Gutierrez, a Cuban-born architect based in Puerto Rico. Blue-and-white tile murals of flowers, by Brazilian artist Francisco Brennand, adorn the full height of the tower's north and south flanks, a bright contrast to the minimalist, tinted glass of the east and west facades.
The second building, behind the tower, is a square, two-story annex built in 1972, balanced atop a small orange cube and suspended 47 feet above the plaza that separates it from the tower. Its four walls are translucent slabs of concrete and stained glass that tell, in abstract form, the story of sugar cane's transformation into rum.
Inspired by the famous reconstruction of a Berlin church destroyed by bombs during World War II, the annex was designed by another Cuban-born architect, Ignacio Carrera-Justiz, now retired, who worked in Coral Gables.
NOTABLE FUSION
Fans say the two buildings (several other Bacardi buildings clustered nearby have no architectural significance) are notable for that fusion of art and architecture, a prime example of a trend that flourished across Latin America in the mid-20th Century. In tandem, the buildings form an arresting composition at mid-Boulevard, especially at night when the annex is lit from within, setting the stained glass aglow.
The designs were also structurally daring: The tower's floors hang from exposed trusses on roof, allowing the entire shaft to rest on a small foot -- a glass-fronted lobby. The annex's two floors are in similar fashion suspended by cables from the roof.
''Technically, the structural advances were exceptional,'' said architect Enrique Madia, head of the local chapter of DOCOMOMO, an international group that lobbies for the preservation of modern architecture. ``They didn't spare a dollar on the construction.
``These buildings are as important, in another historical time frame, as the Freedom Tower.''
The Miami campus was the handiwork of longtime Bacardi chief Pepín Bosch, a member of the family, who shared company founders' passion for art and architecture. From the company's start in Santiago de Cuba in the late 1800s, Bacardi buildings featured the finest architectural styles of the day, from the Classical Revival of the turn-of-the-century family museum in Santiago to the Art Deco of the Havana company headquarters.
Bosch hired Modernist great Mies van der Rohe to design company headquarters in Mexico City and Bermuda, and famed Mexican architect Felix Candela designed the Mexico City botting plant, which features a wave-like concrete roof.
But Bacardi's U.S. headquarters long ago outgrew the Miami buildings. Operations are now spread among half a dozen buildings in the neighborhood. As Bacardi acquired other brands, expanded and installed professional management from outside the large circle of family members, company leaders decided to consolidate.
Bacardi got a favorable lease when Burger King pulled out of a deal to move into a Gables tower built by developer Armando Codina. But fans of Bacardi and its patronage of arts and architecture were disappointed in the corporate-driven choice.
''Here is a patron who at the mid-century was leading the world in terms of modern architecture, was doing among the most interesting corporate work in the hemisphere,'' said Coral Gables architect and University of Miami professor Jorge Hernandez, a member of the group trying to salvage the Bacardi buildings. ``Now they seem to have lost their connection to that.''
Bacardi had at least a couple of local architecture firms draft schemes to expand or add on at the Boulevard site, but those went nowhere.
ECONOMIC FACTOR
In the end, outsiders with knowledge of the company say, economics appear to have trumped architectural tradition inside Bacardi -- even though at least some executives and family members would like the buildings to survive.
''It's sad they're leaving these beautiful buildings, but they've done really well as a company and need a bigger building,'' said Cathy Leff, director of the Wolfsonian-FIU museum, which hosted a fundraiser at Bacardi's Miami headquarters in 2005 to highlight the site's architectural merits. Bacardi communications executive Aura Reinhardt sits on the museum's board, which has received support from the company.
''I know they are totally undecided what to do,'' Leff said. ``They're looking for what is the responsible thing to do.''
The same limitations that made the buildings obsolescent for Bacardi may also make finding a new use problematic. The small floor plates of the Bacardi tower may limit the complex's commercial viability, just as the Freedom Tower, a one-time newspaper building, was shuttered for decades after serving as a processing center for Cuban refugees in the 1960s because it was unsuited for modern commercial use.
Some hope Bacardi will retain the buildings, and perhaps endow them for use as a cultural center. Others say a nonprofit owner, perhaps a foundation, might be the solution. Still others believe the site retains commercial possibilities because of its location on a resurgent Boulevard and the large lot, which has space for new construction.
The fear among preservationists is what might happen if Bacardi unloads the buildings. Because they are not protected as a historic landmark, nothing would stop an owner from altering them or knocking them down.
Some say the city should not wait to designate the buildings, even though the tower is a few years short of the 50-year informal threshold for landmark protection. The city's preservation law allows designation without owner approval, but some backers fear Bacardi would wield its substantial influence to block the move.
''It's an architectural icon,'' said Arva Moore Parks, a Miami historian and until earlier this month chairwoman of the city's planning board. ``You can't wait and see. You wouldn't dream of not protecting something that important. It meets every single criteria for designation.''
But Rodriguez says he and his group hope to win Bacardi's cooperation and participation, though they have not decided how or when to approach the company. Members believe filing a designation petition with the city's preservation board as the opening shot might be counter-productive.
''Before anyone takes that step, we would like to reach out to Bacardi and have some dialogue with Bacardi executives and see what the feeling is on both sides. We don't want to be adversarial,'' he said.
``Given the long track record of Bacardi and its support of arts and architecture, I think that's doable.''
Bacardi's move puts its famed buildings' future in question
BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI
Later this year, Bacardi USA will move out of the striking, mural-bedecked buildings -- monuments, really -- it has occupied on Biscayne Boulevard since the distiller's departure from Cuba, lock, stock and rum barrel, after the 1959 Revolution.
With construction well under way on its new Coral Gables headquarters -- inside the shell of a bland, neo-Mediterranean developer's special -- a suddenly pressing question is being aired in preservation and architectural circles:
What will become of the celebrated buildings once Bacardi goes?
Some architects, preservationists and historians regard them as the most significant structures -- architecturally, culturally, historically -- of the 1960s in Miami.
''Needless to say, there is great concern,'' said Ivan Rodriguez, former head of historic preservation for Miami-Dade County and member of an informal group of architects and preservationists exploring ways to safeguard the buildings' future. ``It's one of our major treasures.''
The tightly controlled, privately held Bacardi won't talk about its plans. Company officials have rebuffed inquiries about the fate of the buildings, letting a letter from the preservationists last year go unanswered, and declining an interview request from a reporter as ``premature.''
''We're considering a variety of options,'' said Bacardi spokeswoman Patricia Neal, adding only: ``We appreciate the fact that people love our building. We love it, too.''
Rarely has a company been so closely identified with its buildings as Bacardi, which has built a legacy of landmark structures from Cuba to Mexico and Bermuda.
In Miami, it's an ensemble of two. The first is a slender eight-story tower, wider than it is deep, facing the Boulevard at 21st Street. Built in 1963, it was designed by Enrique Gutierrez, a Cuban-born architect based in Puerto Rico. Blue-and-white tile murals of flowers, by Brazilian artist Francisco Brennand, adorn the full height of the tower's north and south flanks, a bright contrast to the minimalist, tinted glass of the east and west facades.
The second building, behind the tower, is a square, two-story annex built in 1972, balanced atop a small orange cube and suspended 47 feet above the plaza that separates it from the tower. Its four walls are translucent slabs of concrete and stained glass that tell, in abstract form, the story of sugar cane's transformation into rum.
Inspired by the famous reconstruction of a Berlin church destroyed by bombs during World War II, the annex was designed by another Cuban-born architect, Ignacio Carrera-Justiz, now retired, who worked in Coral Gables.
NOTABLE FUSION
Fans say the two buildings (several other Bacardi buildings clustered nearby have no architectural significance) are notable for that fusion of art and architecture, a prime example of a trend that flourished across Latin America in the mid-20th Century. In tandem, the buildings form an arresting composition at mid-Boulevard, especially at night when the annex is lit from within, setting the stained glass aglow.
The designs were also structurally daring: The tower's floors hang from exposed trusses on roof, allowing the entire shaft to rest on a small foot -- a glass-fronted lobby. The annex's two floors are in similar fashion suspended by cables from the roof.
''Technically, the structural advances were exceptional,'' said architect Enrique Madia, head of the local chapter of DOCOMOMO, an international group that lobbies for the preservation of modern architecture. ``They didn't spare a dollar on the construction.
``These buildings are as important, in another historical time frame, as the Freedom Tower.''
The Miami campus was the handiwork of longtime Bacardi chief Pepín Bosch, a member of the family, who shared company founders' passion for art and architecture. From the company's start in Santiago de Cuba in the late 1800s, Bacardi buildings featured the finest architectural styles of the day, from the Classical Revival of the turn-of-the-century family museum in Santiago to the Art Deco of the Havana company headquarters.
Bosch hired Modernist great Mies van der Rohe to design company headquarters in Mexico City and Bermuda, and famed Mexican architect Felix Candela designed the Mexico City botting plant, which features a wave-like concrete roof.
But Bacardi's U.S. headquarters long ago outgrew the Miami buildings. Operations are now spread among half a dozen buildings in the neighborhood. As Bacardi acquired other brands, expanded and installed professional management from outside the large circle of family members, company leaders decided to consolidate.
Bacardi got a favorable lease when Burger King pulled out of a deal to move into a Gables tower built by developer Armando Codina. But fans of Bacardi and its patronage of arts and architecture were disappointed in the corporate-driven choice.
''Here is a patron who at the mid-century was leading the world in terms of modern architecture, was doing among the most interesting corporate work in the hemisphere,'' said Coral Gables architect and University of Miami professor Jorge Hernandez, a member of the group trying to salvage the Bacardi buildings. ``Now they seem to have lost their connection to that.''
Bacardi had at least a couple of local architecture firms draft schemes to expand or add on at the Boulevard site, but those went nowhere.
ECONOMIC FACTOR
In the end, outsiders with knowledge of the company say, economics appear to have trumped architectural tradition inside Bacardi -- even though at least some executives and family members would like the buildings to survive.
''It's sad they're leaving these beautiful buildings, but they've done really well as a company and need a bigger building,'' said Cathy Leff, director of the Wolfsonian-FIU museum, which hosted a fundraiser at Bacardi's Miami headquarters in 2005 to highlight the site's architectural merits. Bacardi communications executive Aura Reinhardt sits on the museum's board, which has received support from the company.
''I know they are totally undecided what to do,'' Leff said. ``They're looking for what is the responsible thing to do.''
The same limitations that made the buildings obsolescent for Bacardi may also make finding a new use problematic. The small floor plates of the Bacardi tower may limit the complex's commercial viability, just as the Freedom Tower, a one-time newspaper building, was shuttered for decades after serving as a processing center for Cuban refugees in the 1960s because it was unsuited for modern commercial use.
Some hope Bacardi will retain the buildings, and perhaps endow them for use as a cultural center. Others say a nonprofit owner, perhaps a foundation, might be the solution. Still others believe the site retains commercial possibilities because of its location on a resurgent Boulevard and the large lot, which has space for new construction.
The fear among preservationists is what might happen if Bacardi unloads the buildings. Because they are not protected as a historic landmark, nothing would stop an owner from altering them or knocking them down.
Some say the city should not wait to designate the buildings, even though the tower is a few years short of the 50-year informal threshold for landmark protection. The city's preservation law allows designation without owner approval, but some backers fear Bacardi would wield its substantial influence to block the move.
''It's an architectural icon,'' said Arva Moore Parks, a Miami historian and until earlier this month chairwoman of the city's planning board. ``You can't wait and see. You wouldn't dream of not protecting something that important. It meets every single criteria for designation.''
But Rodriguez says he and his group hope to win Bacardi's cooperation and participation, though they have not decided how or when to approach the company. Members believe filing a designation petition with the city's preservation board as the opening shot might be counter-productive.
''Before anyone takes that step, we would like to reach out to Bacardi and have some dialogue with Bacardi executives and see what the feeling is on both sides. We don't want to be adversarial,'' he said.
``Given the long track record of Bacardi and its support of arts and architecture, I think that's doable.''