Miami marine stadium

[lucky devil]

Sad state of affairs

http://www.preservationnation.org/travel-and-sites/sites/southern-region/miami-marine-stadium.html

 

[Chris]

CBGB's in New York City closed. If an iconic place like that can't be saved, nothing is really safe.

Bottom line- the world has changed and there's just not enough interest in stuff like this. Old guys like me like to ***** about change and complain about how no one honors tradition. But then we don't go to these places when they're saved from the wrecking ball. If the Marine Stadium was viable, the economics would provide the solution.

My local community had an old, historic stadium. They came up with the idea to save it. They poured about 10 million into it to restore it and attract a women's professional softball team. Built a league hall of fame and all. After the first season there were average crowds under 20 people. And the community wants to lynch the mayor over it.

 

[Sean Stinson]

There is a website for Save the Stadium.... Friends of Miami Marine Stadium do a search and it will pull it up!!!

 

[cigdaze]

http://www.marinestadium.org/

Move to save Miami Marine Stadium gets historic boost
A prominent preservation group is placing Miami Marine Stadium on its influential list of 11 most endangered historic sites in the country.

BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI
aviglucci@MiamiHerald.com

A scrappy campaign to save the long-shuttered Miami Marine Stadium, increasingly admired as a masterpiece of modern architecture, will get a major boost Tuesday when the country's principal preservation group names the city-owned site as one of the most endangered historic places in the United States.

Inclusion on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's list of 11 most-endangered historic sites puts the marine stadium, largely forgotten until a group of architects and preservationists launched a save-the-stadium effort, in the company of Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple outside Chicago, the Manhattan Project's Enola Gay hangar in Utah and Los Angeles' Century Plaza Hotel -- designed by the architect of the World Trade Center.

The annual list -- which last year included Miami's Vizcaya and Fort Lauderdale's Bonnet House, both threatened at the time by adjacent high-rise development -- is meant to shine a national spotlight on structures and landscapes that preservationists think merit urgent action.

''This recognizes the stadium is important nationally,'' said Jorge Hernandez, a Coral Gables architect, professor and trustee of the national group that pushed for the stadium's inclusion on the list. ``This will reach an even broader audience, and we hope it will help our politicians recognize what a unique resource it is.''

National Trust president Richard Moe said the marine stadium was included on the list after researchers concluded there is nothing else like it in the country.

''It's an iconic building,'' Moe said. ``I've never seen anything like that design. Everything argues for the city putting muscle and mind behind a plan to bring it back to life.''

Although Miami's historic preservation board named the stadium grandstand and its companion U-shaped water basin a historic site last year, preventing demolition or significant alteration, its future remains in doubt.

The threat, as fans of the stadium see it: potential city plans that could strip the stadium of its significance.

The deteriorated grandstand, designed by Cuban American architect Hilario Candela, needs millions of dollars in renovation work to reopen. Meanwhile, the city -- which once planned to do away with it -- has yet to identify potential new uses for the building.

And the city administration, in an unusual move, has appealed historic designation of the basin portion to the city commission, raising worries among boaters, rowers and preservationists over the valuable site's future. The city had long eyed the site for commercial development.

Early city plans showed a marina that would constrain use of the popular basin. Without open water, preservationists argue, the grandstand would be little more than a relic. City planners have been revising the concept for more than a year, but nothing has been issued publicly.

''If you remove the basin, it's like a baseball stadium without the diamond,'' Hernandez said.

The stadium was nominated for the National Trust list by Friends of Miami Marine Stadium, www.marinestadium.org, which plans a demonstration outside the site's gate on the Rickenbacker Causeway at 10 a.m. Tuesday. The group also is planning a series of events to raise funds and awareness of the stadium.

Release of the National Trust list -- and the marine stadium's inclusion -- coincides with the group's launch of an initiative to highlight the need to save Modernist buildings, many of which are under threat of demolition or falling into deterioration. The often-austere style, which fell into disfavor as the century wore on, has found new adherents among young architects, preservationists and design fans.

Miami and Miami Beach have in recent years moved aggressively to create historic districts to protect structures built in the 1940s and 1950s, many in the tropics-meets-Bauhaus style dubbed Miami Modern, or MiMo. Aside from designating the marine stadium, Miami's preservation office is also considering protecting the iconic Bacardi buildings on Biscayne Boulevard, with a preliminary vote scheduled for May 5.

''Every architectural style that has passed the test of time had a period of being very controversial.'' Moe said. ``Victorian was very controversial in its time. People forget that. Art Deco was very controversial.

``Now Modernism is coming into its own as historic. But so much of the good stuff is being lost before it's 50 years old. So we're not going to wait.''

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/1021060.html?asset_id=1020901&asset_type=gallery

 

[Dude! Sweet!]

Albert ran me by there in the Mig when I was in town a few years ago. Very cool place and a real shame that it's not be put to use. Sounds like the steps to preserve it are headed the right direction. Now someone's got to step up and actually use it for it's intended purpose.

Can't wait to go see the circle boats run at LB Marine Stadium this summer! Going to take my little dude for the first time this year.

 

[Ratickle]

Albert ran me by there in the Mig when I was in town a few years ago. Very cool place and a real shame that it's not be put to use. Sounds like the steps to preserve it are headed the right direction. Now someone's got to step up and actually use it for it's intended purpose.

Can't wait to go see the circle boats run at LB Marine Stadium this summer! Going to take my little dude for the first time this year.

Rich and Sean have both said it should be feasible to run an event there that would include an Offshore race with turns in the Stadium lagoon......

 

[Bruce Tobiassen]

Saw Bernie Little with his Miss Budwieser race late 70's

 

[olredalert]

------Im dating myself but remember anchoring off the end in my 69 DONZI Corsican in 1970 with a buddy and a "few" cold ones watching the unlimiteds play. That stadium was so cool. Going there and out to stiltsville are two of my most favorite Miami memories..........Bill S

 

[Sean Stinson]

It's a great place and Sundays on the Bay is just around the corner!!!

 

[THEJOKER]

Wow I just read the entire report on the current condition and what it would take to get it back to use. It'll soon be done just like 188 Street. You'd better go get your artifacts asap!

 

[Bgchuby01]

Sundays on the bay was the place for your weekend boating and dinner. Is the place still there? I used to live there from friday after work until sunday afternoon sleeping on the boat and drinking rum runners and using a dock hose to shower in the morning

 

[Steve Miklos]

Mike A and lee Mills were close on getting a race their and the rights before the OSS debacle. Mike could fill you in on the details. Would have been cool.
Steve

 

[lowblue320]

Sundays on the bay was the place for your weekend boating and dinner. Is the place still there? I used to live there from friday after work until sunday afternoon sleeping on the boat and drinking rum runners and using a dock hose to shower in the morning

Sundays by the bay is long gone..... that place was the best on Sundays with $1.50 rum runners and the biscayne bomer burger....

 

[Sean Stinson]

Rich and Sean have both said it should be feasible to run an event there that would include an Offshore race with turns in the Stadium lagoon......

I was looking at aerial shots and dont know how you would layout a course for an offshore race you wont be able to go under Rickenbacker causeway and if you come in and go along the causeway adn loop through the lagoon come out to the right and follow Virginia Key I think there are some sand bar issues to contend with!!!!

 

[Magicfloat]

Raced OPC there for several years in the early 70's. Lots of great memories,lots of great stories.Was sitting in the stands and saw the famous blowover with Reggie and others.Hope they can make it work.The place is an icon for sure and deserves to be saved.

 

[YoungPerformance]

Man, I can remember going there as a kid with my dad who raced both hydros and blown alcohol flatbottoms. It was a very cool place.
Eddie

 

[Sean Stinson]

It looks like there might be some hope coming up at a May meeting that the architect is having at the Miami Rowing Club!!!!!

 

[boostbros]

i would love to see nitro drag boats there ....is it possable?

 

[Sean Stinson]

First they need to rebuild it!!!!

 

[Sean Stinson]

Then anything is possible