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Posted on Tue, Jan. 17, 2006

Motel owners have new vision for strip

The Vagabond Motel's new owners hope restoring the landmark will inspire a revival of 1950s architecture on Biscayne Boulevard.

BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI
aviglucci@miamiherald.com

In simpler days, families from the frigid North would pile into the Chevy Belair, cruise down sunny Biscayne Boulevard, check into any of a strip of gleefully overmuch Jetsons-go-to-Vegas motels and dive right in the courtyard pool.

Which seems unthinkable today, when the boulevard trade is often rough and by the hour.

But two men are gambling big that the boulevard -- long suspended midway between down and up -- is finally, really ripe for a comeback.

Eric Silverman and Octavio Hidalgo, cousins from Cuba old enough to remember the boulevard's glory days, have paid $4 million for the Vagabond Motel -- the one with the nude sea-nymph grotto and the neon shooting stars at 7301 Biscayne Blvd. -- and they are undertaking a top-to-bottom renovation that will bring the 1953 motel as close as is practical to its original state. With contemporary twists like flat-panel TVs, of course.

''We want to maintain the feeling when you come in -- the pool, the palms,'' Silverman said. ``I love this building, and I want to make it a gem on Biscayne Boulevard.''

Silverman and Hidalgo envision a boutique motel with an open-air pool lounge and moderate rates to cater to the rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods along the boulevard, providing them a close-in alternative to the pricey mayhem of South Beach.

But their plans don't stop at a thriving business. They hope to generate imitators.

In restoring the Vagabond, they say they are not just preserving a treasure that is truly Miami, but also, they hope, helping to encourage the reuse of other buildings that once made the boulevard Miami's signature street, and demonstrating that revitalization doesn't necessarily mean 20-story condos marching up from downtown Miami.

''Those cavernous streets we're building could be in any city in the world -- Toronto, New York, Dusseldorf,'' said Silverman, a one-time fashion executive turned real-estate investor. ``Keeping some of the treasures that are really Miami is important to us. We think the beauty is to blend the old with the new.''

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE

The Vagabond is the brightest in a constellation of 1950s boulevard motels that also includes the South Pacific, the Sinbad and the Shalimar, all of them built in a style lately christened as MiMo, for Miami Modern.

A breezier, subtropical and often lighthearted version of Modernist architecture, MiMo encompasses much of what was built in Miami and Miami Beach during the 1950s and early 1960s, from the relatively modest Biscayne Boulevard motels and commercial buildings to shopping centers, apartment houses and grand resort hotels like Miami Beach's Eden Roc and Fontainebleau.

Though rapidly gaining adherents among design buffs, MiMo buildings were long unappreciated, even scorned as schlock, much like Miami Beach Art Deco before its revival.

And now look at South Beach.

Biscayne Boulevard's MiMo buildings hold similar potential, Silverman and Hidalgo believe. And neighborhood activists who once despised the motels as hotbeds of vice now see the possibility of restoration as an opportune antidote to high-rise development.

''I think it's a fabulous idea,'' said Elvis Cruz, an activist in the Morningside historic district abutting Biscayne. ``Eric Silverman is a very sharp guy, and he realizes Biscayne Boulevard is the next Ocean Drive. The parallels are obvious.''

MiMo buildings are now reaching the 50-year threshold for consideration as historic properties. The city of Miami designated the Vagabond as historic in 2003, and a second Biscayne MiMo building -- the Andiamo restaurant, once a tire store -- has been proposed but not yet considered by the historic preservation board. Supporters say many more deserve legal protection.

Silverman and Hidalgo did not set out to become preservationists but say they quickly recognized the potential while scouting for investment opportunities.

''What's new? What's fresh? Everyone is searching for a unique experience,'' said the shaggy-haired Silverman, former president of Hugo Boss USA, as he sat in a temporary office at the Vagabond surrounded by books on MiMo, hip hotels and 1950s advertising. ``We think we can bring people together around fashion and architecture, as an alternative to expensive Beach hotels. Things will be modern and very traditional.''

`OFF TO A GOOD START'

MiMo proponents are ecstatic. The Vagabond will be the first MiMotel on the boulevard to be renovated.

''It's like answered prayers,'' said Randall Robinson, a Miami Beach planner who helped popularize MiMo and co-authored a recent book on it. ``I get interviewed a lot. People are always asking, have any of the motels been fixed up? I am always so embarrassed to say that none have. But we're off to a good start with this one.''

For the job, Silverman and Hidalgo turned to two MiMo proponents: interior designer Teri D'Amico, who actually coined the term, and architect Allan Shulman.

Luckily, they have a tidy template to work from: Like many of the Biscayne motels, the Vagabond is largely unaltered, ironically preserved by the boulevard's social and economic rot.

The designers, aided by a previous manager's extensive archives on the Vagabond, will respect the building's exterior, designed by Robert M. Swartburg, a prominent Miami architect of the era also responsible for the Delano Hotel and Bass Museum on Miami Beach.

The sea-nymph grotto and their dolphin companions -- designed by Swartburg -- are being restored. Later stone facing has already been removed from the building, and a square ''radiator'' that frames the balconies overlooking the pool, which had been blocked up, has been reopened.

Like the original Vagabond, the restored motel will have a front desk and restaurant in the lobby, which had been converted into a manager's apartment. Plans also call for a spa, a restored pool, a clothing boutique and photographs of MiMo buildings on permanent exhibit.

The style will be ''elegant funky,'' D'Amico said, blending contemporary and period furnishings in keeping with the inimitable original.

''It was designed to catch your eye as you drove by at 30 miles an hour,'' D'Amico said. 'It was, `Look at me, look at me!' It's so fun.''