Via the Miami Herald, To Save a Once-Grand Mansion, Destruction Must Come First:

Saddled with a falling-down landmark mansion on a stunning piece of bayfront property, some real-estate moguls might do as so many others in Miami have: tear the sucker down and replace it with a lot-filling, pseudo-Mediterranean starter castle.

But that’s much too conventional for Jeff Morr, the unabashed businessman who made his name and fortune promoting and selling trendy loft apartments. Morr is the latest owner of the Prescott Mansion, a long-vacant 1923 Mediterranean Revival showpiece in Miami’s historic Bayside neighborhood.

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To save the house, Morr wants to destroy it. He then hopes to replicate the mansion down to the smallest architectural detail, integrating salvaged pieces of the old house into the new.

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In a rare turn, Morr’s plan has been embraced by residents of the historic neighborhood, who have fought off previous proposals to tear down the mansion and replace it with, among other ideas, several homesites. At the same time, neighbors have also long been concerned by vagrants and drug users who periodically set up camp in the house, which has been unoccupied for at least 15 years.

They note Morr’s plan would not only replicate the house, historically the most prominent in the neighborhood, but preserve views of it from the street and a public bayfront park to its south. It would also restore its landscaping to something close to the original grand scheme. And it would not fill the 28,000-square-foot lot to the maximum now allowed.

This is one of the more interesting “historic preservation” projects that I’ve read about in recent months.  It’s great to hear that Morr wants to preserve the architectural characteristics of his home through reconstitution, replication, and reconstruction.  Additionally, Morr’s use of context-sensitive construction on the “new”, modern wing of the building is to be applauded.  This project is a prime example of how to preserve and integrate a decrepit, structurally unsound building into its current environment.

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