A developer wants to historically designate this parking lot (picture above) behind their already historically protected Biscayne Boulevard retail building, which is known as the Gold Coast Pharmacy and was built in 1926. According to exMiami, instead of building on the very valuable surface lot in the heart of Edgewater, which would be the logical thing to do, the owners plan to sell the developable square footage (known as TDRs) to another developer, saying they'll use the money to restore the building itself.
They argument for preservation is that the placement of the parking lots along this section of Biscayne Boulevard was innovative at the time because it was located behind buildings. This gave the Boulevard itself a unified and pedestrian friendly aesthetic in an era of booming car ownership. It was better looking, took advantage of less valuable land, and adapted existing pre-car building forms for a world with cars. It was good, solid, fairly innovative urban design. That being said, good preservation typically allows for the adaptation of utilitarian spaces to other uses, and this whole thing just screams "ulterior motive". There's a reason they hid those parking lots in the back, people.
· Parking Lot Behind Biscayne Boulevard Building Could be Declared Historic [exMiami]
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