NOVEMBER 12, 2008—PALM BEACH, FLORIDA—The Palm
Beach Town Council today voted three to two in favor of landmarking the
Royal Poinciana Plaza.
“We are so grateful for the support of council members David Rosow, Susan
Markin and Gail Coniglio,” said Patrick Henry Flynn, President of the Palm
Beach Theater Guild which has lead the three year campaign for landmarking.
“In a year of political surprises, this was the biggest one,” Flynn continued.
“We hope to work with the developers to create a new plan for the complex.”
Friday, November 14, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
A Letter by Baxter Webb
DEAR TOWN COUNCIL MEMBERS:
I WOULD LIKE TO BACK UP MR. FLYNN AND HIS IDEAS ABOUT THE LANDMARKING OF THE ROYAL POINCIANA THEATER.
I FEEL THE PLANS THE DEVELOPERS HAVE PROMOTED FOR THIS PROPERTY ARE NOT IN KEEPING WITH PALM BEACH'S LANDMARKING PROSSESS.
I THINK THAT THEY HAVE GOT THE CART BEFORE THE CART BY POSTING TIMES TO VIEW THEIR PLANS TO THE PUBLIC WHEN THE ARCOM COUNCIL HAVE NOT APPROVED THE PLANS. AM I RIGHT ABOUT THAT?
I LOOK FORWARD TO BEING AT THE COUNCIL MEETING ON NOVEMBER 12TH WHEN THE TOWN COUNCIL WILL MEET ON THIS SUBJECT.
BAXTER WEBB
I WOULD LIKE TO BACK UP MR. FLYNN AND HIS IDEAS ABOUT THE LANDMARKING OF THE ROYAL POINCIANA THEATER.
I FEEL THE PLANS THE DEVELOPERS HAVE PROMOTED FOR THIS PROPERTY ARE NOT IN KEEPING WITH PALM BEACH'S LANDMARKING PROSSESS.
I THINK THAT THEY HAVE GOT THE CART BEFORE THE CART BY POSTING TIMES TO VIEW THEIR PLANS TO THE PUBLIC WHEN THE ARCOM COUNCIL HAVE NOT APPROVED THE PLANS. AM I RIGHT ABOUT THAT?
I LOOK FORWARD TO BEING AT THE COUNCIL MEETING ON NOVEMBER 12TH WHEN THE TOWN COUNCIL WILL MEET ON THIS SUBJECT.
BAXTER WEBB
Letter by Mark A. Tarmey
November 6, 2008
Ms. Jane S. Day
c/o Research Atlantica, Inc. for
Town of Palm Beach
728 Granada Drive
Boca Raton, Florida 33432
Dear Ms. Day:
We are writing to encourage the Town of Palm Beach to landmark the Royal Poinciana Plaza & Playhouse. Although we understand that potential plans would allow the façade to remain intact, the entire property is culturally important in the Palm Beach Community and should be saved. On behalf the Board of Trustees of the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation, we would strongly encourage the Town of Palm Beach to landmark this important building so that it does not lose this unique architectural treasure.
Architect John L. Volk, who designed the Royal Poinciana Playhouse and its Plaza in 1957, has been recognized as one of the integral architects in the Town of Palm Beach. Built on the site of Henry Flagler’s Royal Poinciana Hotel along the Lake Worth shoreline, this theater was one of the most significant projects of the 1950s. Choosing to combine the modern and traditional styles, the open modern site plan accommodated both vehicular and pedestrian traffic in addition to parking for the theater and the shopping area of the Plaza. This type of design combination showcases a unique balance between the traditional styles and modern spacing techniques.
In addition to this site’s important local status, according to the Florida Department of State, Division of Historical Resources, Bureau of Historic Preservation, this project is a potentate candidate for a nomination listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
The Florida Trust for Historic Preservation will offer our support to any effort to save this treasure in Palm Beach. Please contact us at your first opportunity if we can be of assistance in any way at the State and National level of preservation advocacy. We respectfully request that your office keep us informed to the status and disposition of this important landmark. It is our sincere hope that the Royal Poinciana Plaza & Playhouse be given every consideration for Landmark Status, as we hope to avoid the loss of another important mid-century treasure in the Town of Palm Beach.
In May of 2009, the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation will hold our 31st Annual Meeting in Palm Beach County. We are excited to have the opportunity to showcase many successful historic preservation projects within the town and we would like nothing better than to announce to our conference attendees that the Royal Poinciana Plaza & Playhouse is one of the newest Landmark designations in the Town of Palm Beach.
Sincerely,
Mark A. Tarmey
President
Ms. Jane S. Day
c/o Research Atlantica, Inc. for
Town of Palm Beach
728 Granada Drive
Boca Raton, Florida 33432
Dear Ms. Day:
We are writing to encourage the Town of Palm Beach to landmark the Royal Poinciana Plaza & Playhouse. Although we understand that potential plans would allow the façade to remain intact, the entire property is culturally important in the Palm Beach Community and should be saved. On behalf the Board of Trustees of the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation, we would strongly encourage the Town of Palm Beach to landmark this important building so that it does not lose this unique architectural treasure.
Architect John L. Volk, who designed the Royal Poinciana Playhouse and its Plaza in 1957, has been recognized as one of the integral architects in the Town of Palm Beach. Built on the site of Henry Flagler’s Royal Poinciana Hotel along the Lake Worth shoreline, this theater was one of the most significant projects of the 1950s. Choosing to combine the modern and traditional styles, the open modern site plan accommodated both vehicular and pedestrian traffic in addition to parking for the theater and the shopping area of the Plaza. This type of design combination showcases a unique balance between the traditional styles and modern spacing techniques.
In addition to this site’s important local status, according to the Florida Department of State, Division of Historical Resources, Bureau of Historic Preservation, this project is a potentate candidate for a nomination listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
The Florida Trust for Historic Preservation will offer our support to any effort to save this treasure in Palm Beach. Please contact us at your first opportunity if we can be of assistance in any way at the State and National level of preservation advocacy. We respectfully request that your office keep us informed to the status and disposition of this important landmark. It is our sincere hope that the Royal Poinciana Plaza & Playhouse be given every consideration for Landmark Status, as we hope to avoid the loss of another important mid-century treasure in the Town of Palm Beach.
In May of 2009, the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation will hold our 31st Annual Meeting in Palm Beach County. We are excited to have the opportunity to showcase many successful historic preservation projects within the town and we would like nothing better than to announce to our conference attendees that the Royal Poinciana Plaza & Playhouse is one of the newest Landmark designations in the Town of Palm Beach.
Sincerely,
Mark A. Tarmey
President
Landmarking
Landmarking - the Royal Poinciana Plaza is going before the Palm Beach City Council for ratification on Wednesday, November 12. There is great concern the Royal Poinciana Playhouse may only be landmarked in part. The Playhouse stands on its own in meeting all four of the town's criteria for landmarking. Not only for its exterior architecture but its interior architecture as well, in categories of functionality; e.g., acoustics, line of sight, spacious and comfortable seating, overall aesthetic value, and quality of materials and more. Furthermore, its extensive history of celebrity performances and its historic standing by the New York Theatre Guild for selecting the Royal Poinciana Playhouse out of all the theaters in the entire country as the theater to present premiere performances of "The Miracle Worker and the "Glass Menagerie," both of which went on to be produced as movies - is more than noteworthy
Sterling Plan -After review of the Sterling plan I was very pleased to see the Volk parallel buildings will remain in the redevelopment of the Royal Poinciana Plaza. I am greatly disappointed, however, that the developer did not incorporate the entire Royal Poinciana Playhouse in the redevelopment plan. Rather, the plan calls for the playhouse to be razed except for the east façade in order to build a 5-story condominium complex in its place. The remaining modified east façade of the Playhouse is being marketed as the "Volk Gateway" entry to a waterside public park. A closer study would suggest, however, that the gateway will likely best function as a gated entry rather than a "gate way" to the public park. This conclusion is consistent with the removal of the public bike path that had been planned to run along the edge of the Intracoastal Waterway and connect to the existing bike path north of the Flagler Bridge. The public park bordering on the Intracoastal Waterway also functions as the "front yard" of the proposed five-story condominium complex. The long time planned public bike path has been removed thus eliminating any public access to the public park from the public bicycle path.
Symbolic Façade- Allowing only an altered symbolic east façade of the playhouse to stand as symbol of the Royal Poinciana Playhouse, a gem designed by renown architect John Volk would be a travesty to its memory. John Volk's works has contributed greatly to Palm Beach and are found throughout the country as far west as California, south to Texas, east to New York and many states in between. The theatre itself has contributed greatly to the social and culture of Palm Beach. It is a gem that should be treasured and valued not only by the theater enthusiast but all the residents of Palm Beach. The Playhouse has been central to the social and cultural lifestyle of Palm Beach for many years.
1979 Covenant - It is unfortunate the owner of the plaza has not lived up to the 1979 covenant, which requires the owner to provide continued maintenance of the theater that now stands in disrepair and who refuses to allow the Theatre Guild entry to the playhouse.
Viability and Compliance- The Theatre Guild has put forth earnest efforts and enthusiasm by consulting with theater experts to develop a plan to make the playhouse a viable enterprise by shifting from a touring to a regional playhouse and has produced a program that addresses its viability. Concern expressed by some officials that the plan has not been proven – well, the real questions should be – does the developer have a proven viable plan and where is the documentation to prove it. For example, the developer claims it would cost approximately $20 million to restore the playhouse in order to meet the codes and ADA compliance requirements. This claim is highly exaggerated. Where is their report and the figures to prove such a claim? Additionally, having worked in historic preservation for a number of years for the state of Florida until recently, I know it is well recognized that historically significant buildings, such as the Playhouse, although required to meet the safety codes and ADA compliance needs, receive certain leniency in adhering to the strict letter of the code required by new construction, as long as the safety codes and ADA needs are met satisfactorily. This flexibility allows the integrity of the historic building to be maintained and still meet the safety and ADA requirements. The burden of proof should really be placed on the developer not the Theater Guild.
The Loss - To lose a valuable piece of history with all the memories, quality of materials and functionality that are manifested in a historically significant building such as the Royal Poinciana Playhouse would be a tremendous loss to the town and theater community. A building that has earned its aesthetic and cultural standing in the theatre community and meets all of the Town's Landmarking criteria on its own should not be replaced with a theatre less than half its size, and suggests possibly having a cabaret setting (a shell and moving chairs around). This would be a grave mistake and a tremendous loss to the Town of Palm Beach and to the region as a whole. Another question is, why was the 900-seat Parker Theatre in Fort Lauderdale not used as a comparative study in the Duncan Webb report. A regional playhouse that is successful and also designed by the renown architect John L. Volk. On a personal note, I have been to the Royal Poinciana Playhouse many times and miss it very much. One should remember - once the playhouse is gone - it is gone forever. A few arches in front of a park will stand not as a good memory of the Royal Poinciana Playhouse but a symbol of a tremendous loss of the treasured playhouse that once stood there.
Bonnie Dearborn,
Dearborn Preservation Research, Inc.
Boca Raton
Sterling Plan -After review of the Sterling plan I was very pleased to see the Volk parallel buildings will remain in the redevelopment of the Royal Poinciana Plaza. I am greatly disappointed, however, that the developer did not incorporate the entire Royal Poinciana Playhouse in the redevelopment plan. Rather, the plan calls for the playhouse to be razed except for the east façade in order to build a 5-story condominium complex in its place. The remaining modified east façade of the Playhouse is being marketed as the "Volk Gateway" entry to a waterside public park. A closer study would suggest, however, that the gateway will likely best function as a gated entry rather than a "gate way" to the public park. This conclusion is consistent with the removal of the public bike path that had been planned to run along the edge of the Intracoastal Waterway and connect to the existing bike path north of the Flagler Bridge. The public park bordering on the Intracoastal Waterway also functions as the "front yard" of the proposed five-story condominium complex. The long time planned public bike path has been removed thus eliminating any public access to the public park from the public bicycle path.
Symbolic Façade- Allowing only an altered symbolic east façade of the playhouse to stand as symbol of the Royal Poinciana Playhouse, a gem designed by renown architect John Volk would be a travesty to its memory. John Volk's works has contributed greatly to Palm Beach and are found throughout the country as far west as California, south to Texas, east to New York and many states in between. The theatre itself has contributed greatly to the social and culture of Palm Beach. It is a gem that should be treasured and valued not only by the theater enthusiast but all the residents of Palm Beach. The Playhouse has been central to the social and cultural lifestyle of Palm Beach for many years.
1979 Covenant - It is unfortunate the owner of the plaza has not lived up to the 1979 covenant, which requires the owner to provide continued maintenance of the theater that now stands in disrepair and who refuses to allow the Theatre Guild entry to the playhouse.
Viability and Compliance- The Theatre Guild has put forth earnest efforts and enthusiasm by consulting with theater experts to develop a plan to make the playhouse a viable enterprise by shifting from a touring to a regional playhouse and has produced a program that addresses its viability. Concern expressed by some officials that the plan has not been proven – well, the real questions should be – does the developer have a proven viable plan and where is the documentation to prove it. For example, the developer claims it would cost approximately $20 million to restore the playhouse in order to meet the codes and ADA compliance requirements. This claim is highly exaggerated. Where is their report and the figures to prove such a claim? Additionally, having worked in historic preservation for a number of years for the state of Florida until recently, I know it is well recognized that historically significant buildings, such as the Playhouse, although required to meet the safety codes and ADA compliance needs, receive certain leniency in adhering to the strict letter of the code required by new construction, as long as the safety codes and ADA needs are met satisfactorily. This flexibility allows the integrity of the historic building to be maintained and still meet the safety and ADA requirements. The burden of proof should really be placed on the developer not the Theater Guild.
The Loss - To lose a valuable piece of history with all the memories, quality of materials and functionality that are manifested in a historically significant building such as the Royal Poinciana Playhouse would be a tremendous loss to the town and theater community. A building that has earned its aesthetic and cultural standing in the theatre community and meets all of the Town's Landmarking criteria on its own should not be replaced with a theatre less than half its size, and suggests possibly having a cabaret setting (a shell and moving chairs around). This would be a grave mistake and a tremendous loss to the Town of Palm Beach and to the region as a whole. Another question is, why was the 900-seat Parker Theatre in Fort Lauderdale not used as a comparative study in the Duncan Webb report. A regional playhouse that is successful and also designed by the renown architect John L. Volk. On a personal note, I have been to the Royal Poinciana Playhouse many times and miss it very much. One should remember - once the playhouse is gone - it is gone forever. A few arches in front of a park will stand not as a good memory of the Royal Poinciana Playhouse but a symbol of a tremendous loss of the treasured playhouse that once stood there.
Bonnie Dearborn,
Dearborn Preservation Research, Inc.
Boca Raton
Monday, November 3, 2008
If approved, Plaza and Playhouse would be first Regency landmarks in Palm Beach
Saturday, October 25, 2008
By AUGUSTUS MAYHEW
Special to the Daily News
Click-2-Listen
The centerpiece of a large asphalt parking lot, the Royal Poinciana Plaza's north and south buildings feature matching two-story porticos with upper-story horizontal glass window bands and molded pediments set on columns finished with composite capitals.
Palm Beach architecture's uncommon mix of artifice and authenticity transforms the island's houses into incomparable showplaces, none more eclectic, fantastic and unexpected than those inspired and fashioned from early 19th century Regency architecture.
Unlike the Mediterranean and Caribbean styles that are rooted to the island's history, location and climate, Palm Beach's posh Regency style is widely considered an interpretation of England's stately Late Georgian aristocratic facades, illustrated by architect John Volk's designs for the Royal Poinciana Plaza and Royal Poinciana Playhouse, designer-builder Clarence Mack's houses and developer Robert Gottfried's stately formal compositions, as designed by architect John B. Gosman.
Despite the number of Palm Beach houses characterized as Regency, when the Landmarks Preservation Commission recommended the Palm Beach Town Council designate the Royal Poinciana Plaza and Playhouse as local landmarks, it probably never realized the town had never historically designated a property as significant for its Regency style.
"After a review of the local register of landmarks and a re-look at the Florida Master Site File for all our landmarks, none are listed as Regency," said Jane Day, the town's historic preservation consultant.
And further emphasizing the Plaza and Playhouse's unprecedented standing, according to state and national architectural scholars, a 20th-century Regency-styled building has never been historically designated in either Florida or the United States.
Regency's rules
"I have never seen the term Regency used in regard to post-World War II architecture, or even prewar architecture in Florida, that would be labeled as Neoclassical Revival," said William Carl Shriver, the registrar for the National Register of Historic Places at Florida's Bureau of Historic Preservation.
"I know that I have never used the term in regard to buildings in Florida and do not think it is one of the classifications used by the Florida Master Site File," Shriver added. The Florida Master Site File is an archive of the state's more than 150,000 recorded prehistoric and historical cultural resources. It is maintained by the Bureau of Historic Preservation of the Division of Historical Resources.
Properties are designated "historic" by state and national organizations according to the integrity of their design and the period in which they were created.
According to the National Trust's documentation guidelines, the Regency style refers only to Early Republic properties built between 1780 and 1830, a transitional movement between the Georgian and Victorian era that approximates the term of the prince regent under George III and, following his father's death, his reign as George IV.
Hence, Savannah and Charleston's early 19th century Regency buildings are historically designated as Regency.
While the National Trust acknowledges Neoclassical Revival as an early 20th century design, it cites only the following postwar design styles as historic: International, Wrightian, Brutalism, California or Ranch, Modern and Deco Moderne.
As a result, Regency is not a viable postwar design classification suitable for nomination to the National Register solely on the basis of its architectural design.
"You are in some uncharted terrain in the 1950s and beyond. This 1950s interpretation of Regency style was explored in the design of private residences and interiors in both Palm Beach, as well as Beverly Hills, and is a post-World War II phenomenon," said Jeff Burden, architectural historian for the National Trust.
A consultant for the Center of Antique Architecture, Paris, and the Villa Medici, Rome, Burden is an architect and an archaeologist, the only American architect to have been a Fellow at the American School of Classical Studies, the American Academy, Rome, and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris.
"What you see in these Palm Beach residences was an interest in the slim elegance of English Regency style of the early 19th century. To date, it is a somewhat less touched-upon area of scholarship," Burden said.
Style explained
The Landmarks Preservation Commission's designation report makes numerous references to the Plaza and the Playhouse as examples of Regency architecture.
In 2006, ARCOM unanimously accepted a demolition report for a Clarence Mack-built Regency-style house on South County Road, finding the property "without any historical or redeeming architectural features to justify preserving the residence."
And further, ARCOM explains the style as follows, "The so-called Regency style of Palm Beach has come to mean a one-story, symmetrical flat-roofed structure with classical ornamentation, stucco banding, keystones, window surrounds, arched windows, pediments, columns, elongated windows ... "
This description does little to associate the building type with England's Regency style between 1780 and 1830, a period of powdered wigs and top hats when late Late Georgian-era designers formulated a picturesque aesthetic hybrid from an assortment of classical styles, most often traced from Grand Tour sketchbooks and inspired by the ruins at Herculaneum and Pompeii.
The Georgian royal court was renowned for masques, banquets and pageants, a style of excess more closely related to the earlier French Directoire and Empire style found during the Regency of Louis XV than Palladio's more functional and symmetrical Roman style imported a century earlier by architect Inigo Jones.
When British Regency architects were not designing a palace or gilding a hall, their best-known architectural form was expressed in multistory townhouse developments like London's Regent Park or Montpelier Crescent, Norfolk Square or Western Terrace found in Brighton, adorned with enriched pediments, elaborate pilasters, ironwork balconies and verandas.
Nearly 130 years later, Palm Beach created its own adaptation of the aristocratic Regency style. Whether it was the Phipps family's appreciation for English culture, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor effect — the influence of the era's most ubiquitous house guests — or the architect's preference to blend "trend and tradition," as expressed in the designation report, the Royal Poinciana Plaza and the Royal Poinciana Playhouse were designed as if they were a tableau vivant from Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility.
The Plaza, the Playhouse and the automobile
After the Palm Beach Towers opened as the nation's largest hotel-apartment resort in 1955, Bessemer Properties Inc. proceeded with developing the adjacent vacant property into a shopping plaza and theater, to be built with a low profile that maintained the views for the multistory apartments. The Plaza's matching buildings were sited in a similar east-west configuration as The Towers' pair of H-shaped buildings. But, in contrast to the Towers, connected by a two-level center concourse that faced Cocoanut Row, the Plaza placed its side elevations onto Cocoanut Row, turning its parallel facades north and south, making it the centerpiece of an asphalt parking lot with an encircling roundabout, reflecting the postwar era's rationale that the automobile dictated commercial architectural design.
The Royal Poinciana Plaza's large plate-glass display windows and sea of asphalt ushered in Palm Beach's tail-fin era when shoppers in their Imperials or Lincoln Continentals could drive right up to a shop and park, nothing like Worth Avenue where parking was at a premium and display windows were retrofitted into jewel-box buildings.
And although the Landmarks Preservation Commission's designation report makes numerous references to the Plaza's Regency architecture, upon a more in-depth scrutiny, it may be the building's silhouette that evokes the 1820s, rather than the complex's substance and details, that are clearly 1950s.
The Plaza's bands of upper-story horizontal windows and plate-glass display windows are more suitable for West Palm Beach's Clematis Street than the Regency era's quaint shops and boutiques.
The Plaza's corresponding north and south facades are centered by two-story portico entrances detailed with composite capitals that dispel the building's historical stylistic cachet.
The interior garden walkways are lined with aluminum columnettes apropos of a 1950s suburban shopping center.
On the Playhouse's imaginative east elevation, five arched bays are painted windows with fanciful grilles curved like balconies and its scored blocks create the illusory appearance that the building is a far more complex structure than a regional theater.
As the Plaza and Playhouse neared completion, builder-developer Clarence Mack (1888-1982) planned Regent Park, a subdivision of five houses placed around a circular drive that framed a central open park in the South End, designed in a residential style closely akin to Volk's commercial Royal Poinciana Plaza.
But there was a critical difference: John Volk was an architect, whose expertise was his tailored design for clients; Clarence Mack was not an architect but a designer-builder known for his mass appeal, a former window dresser who two decades earlier had moved to Palm Beach from Cleveland, Ohio, where he was a spec builder who packaged turnkey houses.
'Tropical Empire': Clarence Mack's style
Before Clarence Mack platted Regent Park, he had built Neoclassical Revival-style houses, in a style he called Tropical Empire, on Via del Lago, Jungle Road and El Vedado.
Between 1914 and 1938, Mack design-built more than 30 houses in Lakewood and Shaker Heights, Ohio, converting pattern-book exteriors into mansions for newly minted fortunes who wanted an old-money look, interchanging various facades and doorways, detailing and altering them with his own palette of French eclectic and Georgian features.
"Though everyone still calls him an architect, I have never seen any evidence that Clarence Mack studied architecture, apprenticed as an architect or was ever actually a licensed architect in Ohio or Florida," said Ann Marie Wieland, archivist for the Cleveland Public Library, the repository for the Clarence Mack archives.
Mack's father and grandfather were builders, and having learned the trade from them, he served as his own designer and contractor, usually living in each of the houses before he sold them. He installed crystal chandeliers, Chippendale mirrors and marble mantels; planted English-style gardens; filled rooms with French and English antiques; and added powder rooms and libraries where he leather-tooled the bookends to match the woodwork.
"He had a wonderful eye and was self-taught working in the family's building business," added Wieland, whose master's thesis included a survey of Mack's work.
Mack's early Palm Beach houses were modeled on his 1920s Ohio houses, with slight modifications and facades accessorized with urns and statues. Mack furnished 320 El Vedado, the home of Benson Ford for many years, with figurines and sconces, including Wheeler Williams sculptures.
Across the street, at 319 El Vedado, he added Ionic pilasters and a lower-level garage to the facade of his popular Lakewood House, before selling it in 1940 to artist Channing Hare.
Following the success of Regent Park, Mack developed Parc Monceau, named for a late 18th century English-styled park in Paris, where he subdivided an estate-sized parcel and built seven houses formulated with the same strict geometry and decor as Regent Park.
Clarence Mack's achievements attracted builder Robert Gottfried (1926-2007), who when he first arrived in Palm Beach to work in his family's construction business, asked Mack's advice on what he should build in Palm Beach, and according to the Preservation Foundation's records, Mack told Gottfried to specialize in one particular style and make it his own.
Gottfried paid Mack the highest compliment by emulating Mack's style but synthesized less decorous exteriors with more modern, spacious interiors. Within several years, Robert Gottfried's name would be synonymous with the style — the Gottfried Regency.
Gotffried Regency
Beginning with a single house on Wells Road during the 1950s, Robert Gottfried built his signature style, in partnership with architect John B. Gosman, into a definitive Palm Beach genre, where his companies controlled almost every aspect of the house's construction, having established Palm Beach Marble & Tile, Classic Moulders, Imports Unlimited, Classic Polyroof Co. and the PaverLock Driveway Co.
Gottfried Regency, as Time magazine called it in 1981, became tantamount with the sophisticated luxury expected by new Palm Beach residents who did not want to live in barrel-tiled oversized mansions with creaky wooden floors or in multi-unit condominiums.
Gottfried's symmetrical formal facades were detailed with composites and framed by sculpted hedges, conveying a sense of restrained classicism, while beyond the double-door entrances, Gottfried introduced opulent entrance halls, Sherle Wagner bathrooms, St. Charles kitchens, silver closets, built-in security systems and oversized galleries.
In the North End, Polmer Park, Via Linda, Chateaux Drive and North Lake Way became settings for Gottfried's brand of resort living. Along Via Los Incas, Gottfried built 10 mansionettes designed to look as if they had been there forever, a style he called French Gottfried, their striking similarities evocative of Mansart's Hall of Mirrors.
The architectural visions of Volk, Mack and Gottfried were uniquely Palm Beach; their work reflects the island's unrestrained delight in mingling reality and fantasy.
For without illusion, how could Palm Beach exist?
And, however uncertain the architectural vogue of the Royal Poinciana Plaza and the Royal Poinciana Playhouse may be, if the Town Council designates them as historic, there is no doubt that the Town of Palm Beach will make history.
The National Trust's architectural historian has a possible solution.
"You may be able to create your own term — Regency Revival of the 1950s, perhaps," said Burden.
Augustus Mayhew is a local historian, author and a contributing editor to HOME magazine. He has served as chairman and vice chairman of local and regional historic preservation boards, as well as a consultant for historic preservation ordinances and was a recipient of the AIA Palm Beach chapter's Historic Preservation Award. For many years, Mr. Mayhew was chairman of Archives and Collections for the Historical Society of Palm Beach County, establishing the organization's 'Guide to the Architectural Collections.'
By AUGUSTUS MAYHEW
Special to the Daily News
Click-2-Listen
The centerpiece of a large asphalt parking lot, the Royal Poinciana Plaza's north and south buildings feature matching two-story porticos with upper-story horizontal glass window bands and molded pediments set on columns finished with composite capitals.
Palm Beach architecture's uncommon mix of artifice and authenticity transforms the island's houses into incomparable showplaces, none more eclectic, fantastic and unexpected than those inspired and fashioned from early 19th century Regency architecture.
Unlike the Mediterranean and Caribbean styles that are rooted to the island's history, location and climate, Palm Beach's posh Regency style is widely considered an interpretation of England's stately Late Georgian aristocratic facades, illustrated by architect John Volk's designs for the Royal Poinciana Plaza and Royal Poinciana Playhouse, designer-builder Clarence Mack's houses and developer Robert Gottfried's stately formal compositions, as designed by architect John B. Gosman.
Despite the number of Palm Beach houses characterized as Regency, when the Landmarks Preservation Commission recommended the Palm Beach Town Council designate the Royal Poinciana Plaza and Playhouse as local landmarks, it probably never realized the town had never historically designated a property as significant for its Regency style.
"After a review of the local register of landmarks and a re-look at the Florida Master Site File for all our landmarks, none are listed as Regency," said Jane Day, the town's historic preservation consultant.
And further emphasizing the Plaza and Playhouse's unprecedented standing, according to state and national architectural scholars, a 20th-century Regency-styled building has never been historically designated in either Florida or the United States.
Regency's rules
"I have never seen the term Regency used in regard to post-World War II architecture, or even prewar architecture in Florida, that would be labeled as Neoclassical Revival," said William Carl Shriver, the registrar for the National Register of Historic Places at Florida's Bureau of Historic Preservation.
"I know that I have never used the term in regard to buildings in Florida and do not think it is one of the classifications used by the Florida Master Site File," Shriver added. The Florida Master Site File is an archive of the state's more than 150,000 recorded prehistoric and historical cultural resources. It is maintained by the Bureau of Historic Preservation of the Division of Historical Resources.
Properties are designated "historic" by state and national organizations according to the integrity of their design and the period in which they were created.
According to the National Trust's documentation guidelines, the Regency style refers only to Early Republic properties built between 1780 and 1830, a transitional movement between the Georgian and Victorian era that approximates the term of the prince regent under George III and, following his father's death, his reign as George IV.
Hence, Savannah and Charleston's early 19th century Regency buildings are historically designated as Regency.
While the National Trust acknowledges Neoclassical Revival as an early 20th century design, it cites only the following postwar design styles as historic: International, Wrightian, Brutalism, California or Ranch, Modern and Deco Moderne.
As a result, Regency is not a viable postwar design classification suitable for nomination to the National Register solely on the basis of its architectural design.
"You are in some uncharted terrain in the 1950s and beyond. This 1950s interpretation of Regency style was explored in the design of private residences and interiors in both Palm Beach, as well as Beverly Hills, and is a post-World War II phenomenon," said Jeff Burden, architectural historian for the National Trust.
A consultant for the Center of Antique Architecture, Paris, and the Villa Medici, Rome, Burden is an architect and an archaeologist, the only American architect to have been a Fellow at the American School of Classical Studies, the American Academy, Rome, and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris.
"What you see in these Palm Beach residences was an interest in the slim elegance of English Regency style of the early 19th century. To date, it is a somewhat less touched-upon area of scholarship," Burden said.
Style explained
The Landmarks Preservation Commission's designation report makes numerous references to the Plaza and the Playhouse as examples of Regency architecture.
In 2006, ARCOM unanimously accepted a demolition report for a Clarence Mack-built Regency-style house on South County Road, finding the property "without any historical or redeeming architectural features to justify preserving the residence."
And further, ARCOM explains the style as follows, "The so-called Regency style of Palm Beach has come to mean a one-story, symmetrical flat-roofed structure with classical ornamentation, stucco banding, keystones, window surrounds, arched windows, pediments, columns, elongated windows ... "
This description does little to associate the building type with England's Regency style between 1780 and 1830, a period of powdered wigs and top hats when late Late Georgian-era designers formulated a picturesque aesthetic hybrid from an assortment of classical styles, most often traced from Grand Tour sketchbooks and inspired by the ruins at Herculaneum and Pompeii.
The Georgian royal court was renowned for masques, banquets and pageants, a style of excess more closely related to the earlier French Directoire and Empire style found during the Regency of Louis XV than Palladio's more functional and symmetrical Roman style imported a century earlier by architect Inigo Jones.
When British Regency architects were not designing a palace or gilding a hall, their best-known architectural form was expressed in multistory townhouse developments like London's Regent Park or Montpelier Crescent, Norfolk Square or Western Terrace found in Brighton, adorned with enriched pediments, elaborate pilasters, ironwork balconies and verandas.
Nearly 130 years later, Palm Beach created its own adaptation of the aristocratic Regency style. Whether it was the Phipps family's appreciation for English culture, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor effect — the influence of the era's most ubiquitous house guests — or the architect's preference to blend "trend and tradition," as expressed in the designation report, the Royal Poinciana Plaza and the Royal Poinciana Playhouse were designed as if they were a tableau vivant from Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility.
The Plaza, the Playhouse and the automobile
After the Palm Beach Towers opened as the nation's largest hotel-apartment resort in 1955, Bessemer Properties Inc. proceeded with developing the adjacent vacant property into a shopping plaza and theater, to be built with a low profile that maintained the views for the multistory apartments. The Plaza's matching buildings were sited in a similar east-west configuration as The Towers' pair of H-shaped buildings. But, in contrast to the Towers, connected by a two-level center concourse that faced Cocoanut Row, the Plaza placed its side elevations onto Cocoanut Row, turning its parallel facades north and south, making it the centerpiece of an asphalt parking lot with an encircling roundabout, reflecting the postwar era's rationale that the automobile dictated commercial architectural design.
The Royal Poinciana Plaza's large plate-glass display windows and sea of asphalt ushered in Palm Beach's tail-fin era when shoppers in their Imperials or Lincoln Continentals could drive right up to a shop and park, nothing like Worth Avenue where parking was at a premium and display windows were retrofitted into jewel-box buildings.
And although the Landmarks Preservation Commission's designation report makes numerous references to the Plaza's Regency architecture, upon a more in-depth scrutiny, it may be the building's silhouette that evokes the 1820s, rather than the complex's substance and details, that are clearly 1950s.
The Plaza's bands of upper-story horizontal windows and plate-glass display windows are more suitable for West Palm Beach's Clematis Street than the Regency era's quaint shops and boutiques.
The Plaza's corresponding north and south facades are centered by two-story portico entrances detailed with composite capitals that dispel the building's historical stylistic cachet.
The interior garden walkways are lined with aluminum columnettes apropos of a 1950s suburban shopping center.
On the Playhouse's imaginative east elevation, five arched bays are painted windows with fanciful grilles curved like balconies and its scored blocks create the illusory appearance that the building is a far more complex structure than a regional theater.
As the Plaza and Playhouse neared completion, builder-developer Clarence Mack (1888-1982) planned Regent Park, a subdivision of five houses placed around a circular drive that framed a central open park in the South End, designed in a residential style closely akin to Volk's commercial Royal Poinciana Plaza.
But there was a critical difference: John Volk was an architect, whose expertise was his tailored design for clients; Clarence Mack was not an architect but a designer-builder known for his mass appeal, a former window dresser who two decades earlier had moved to Palm Beach from Cleveland, Ohio, where he was a spec builder who packaged turnkey houses.
'Tropical Empire': Clarence Mack's style
Before Clarence Mack platted Regent Park, he had built Neoclassical Revival-style houses, in a style he called Tropical Empire, on Via del Lago, Jungle Road and El Vedado.
Between 1914 and 1938, Mack design-built more than 30 houses in Lakewood and Shaker Heights, Ohio, converting pattern-book exteriors into mansions for newly minted fortunes who wanted an old-money look, interchanging various facades and doorways, detailing and altering them with his own palette of French eclectic and Georgian features.
"Though everyone still calls him an architect, I have never seen any evidence that Clarence Mack studied architecture, apprenticed as an architect or was ever actually a licensed architect in Ohio or Florida," said Ann Marie Wieland, archivist for the Cleveland Public Library, the repository for the Clarence Mack archives.
Mack's father and grandfather were builders, and having learned the trade from them, he served as his own designer and contractor, usually living in each of the houses before he sold them. He installed crystal chandeliers, Chippendale mirrors and marble mantels; planted English-style gardens; filled rooms with French and English antiques; and added powder rooms and libraries where he leather-tooled the bookends to match the woodwork.
"He had a wonderful eye and was self-taught working in the family's building business," added Wieland, whose master's thesis included a survey of Mack's work.
Mack's early Palm Beach houses were modeled on his 1920s Ohio houses, with slight modifications and facades accessorized with urns and statues. Mack furnished 320 El Vedado, the home of Benson Ford for many years, with figurines and sconces, including Wheeler Williams sculptures.
Across the street, at 319 El Vedado, he added Ionic pilasters and a lower-level garage to the facade of his popular Lakewood House, before selling it in 1940 to artist Channing Hare.
Following the success of Regent Park, Mack developed Parc Monceau, named for a late 18th century English-styled park in Paris, where he subdivided an estate-sized parcel and built seven houses formulated with the same strict geometry and decor as Regent Park.
Clarence Mack's achievements attracted builder Robert Gottfried (1926-2007), who when he first arrived in Palm Beach to work in his family's construction business, asked Mack's advice on what he should build in Palm Beach, and according to the Preservation Foundation's records, Mack told Gottfried to specialize in one particular style and make it his own.
Gottfried paid Mack the highest compliment by emulating Mack's style but synthesized less decorous exteriors with more modern, spacious interiors. Within several years, Robert Gottfried's name would be synonymous with the style — the Gottfried Regency.
Gotffried Regency
Beginning with a single house on Wells Road during the 1950s, Robert Gottfried built his signature style, in partnership with architect John B. Gosman, into a definitive Palm Beach genre, where his companies controlled almost every aspect of the house's construction, having established Palm Beach Marble & Tile, Classic Moulders, Imports Unlimited, Classic Polyroof Co. and the PaverLock Driveway Co.
Gottfried Regency, as Time magazine called it in 1981, became tantamount with the sophisticated luxury expected by new Palm Beach residents who did not want to live in barrel-tiled oversized mansions with creaky wooden floors or in multi-unit condominiums.
Gottfried's symmetrical formal facades were detailed with composites and framed by sculpted hedges, conveying a sense of restrained classicism, while beyond the double-door entrances, Gottfried introduced opulent entrance halls, Sherle Wagner bathrooms, St. Charles kitchens, silver closets, built-in security systems and oversized galleries.
In the North End, Polmer Park, Via Linda, Chateaux Drive and North Lake Way became settings for Gottfried's brand of resort living. Along Via Los Incas, Gottfried built 10 mansionettes designed to look as if they had been there forever, a style he called French Gottfried, their striking similarities evocative of Mansart's Hall of Mirrors.
The architectural visions of Volk, Mack and Gottfried were uniquely Palm Beach; their work reflects the island's unrestrained delight in mingling reality and fantasy.
For without illusion, how could Palm Beach exist?
And, however uncertain the architectural vogue of the Royal Poinciana Plaza and the Royal Poinciana Playhouse may be, if the Town Council designates them as historic, there is no doubt that the Town of Palm Beach will make history.
The National Trust's architectural historian has a possible solution.
"You may be able to create your own term — Regency Revival of the 1950s, perhaps," said Burden.
Augustus Mayhew is a local historian, author and a contributing editor to HOME magazine. He has served as chairman and vice chairman of local and regional historic preservation boards, as well as a consultant for historic preservation ordinances and was a recipient of the AIA Palm Beach chapter's Historic Preservation Award. For many years, Mr. Mayhew was chairman of Archives and Collections for the Historical Society of Palm Beach County, establishing the organization's 'Guide to the Architectural Collections.'
Palm Beach Theater Guild sets forum about Royal Poinciana Plaza, Playhouse
Saturday, October 25, 2008
By JAN SJOSTROM
Daily News Arts Editor
Click-2-Listen
The Palm Beach Theater Guild will hold a free public forum to discuss the proposed landmarking of the Royal Poinciana Plaza and the Royal Poinciana Playhouse at 4 p.m. Nov. 7 at Nick & Johnnie's Patio Bar and Grill, 207 Royal Poinciana Way.
The Town Council will consider the Landmarks Preservation Commission's recommendation that the properties by landmarked at its Nov. 12 meeting.
The panel will be moderated by guild board member Paul Noble. Other panelists will be Karen Nickless, field representative for the National Trust for Historic Preservation Southern Office; John Ripley, executive director of the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach; R. Douglas Hulse, treasurer of the Theater Guild board; and Tim Frank, who recently retired as the town planner.
The guild wants to save the Playhouse and operate it as a theater offering a middle-of-the road menu of produced and co-produced plays, one-night shows, children's programs and movie screenings. It also would rent the hall to other users.
"We encourage people to attend and to take a stand to encourage our Town Council to vote in favor of landmarking the Royal Poinciana Plaza," guild president Patrick Flynn said in a statement.
On Friday, the guild released a letter from the state Division of Historical Resources endorsing the landmarking and preservation of the Playhouse.
"The Playhouse is an important cultural and historical resource in Palm Beach, and we strongly recommend that every effort be made to preserve its historic architectural integrity throughout," wrote Barbara Mattick, chief of the bureau of historic preservation.
Sterling Palm Beach, which has a long-term lease on the plaza properties, has proposed demolishing all but the eastern facade of the 50-year-old, John Volk-designed Playhouse and building five-story condominiums in its place.
A study produced for the developers by consultant Duncan Webb concluded that re-opening the 878-seat Playhouse, which has been shuttered since 2004, is not financially viable.
The developers oppose landmarking the entire plaza and propose landmarking only the cupola that tops the Slat House, the Volk-designed commercial buildings and the Playhouse's east facade.
"My partners and I are further willing to have the entire property be overseen by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in perpetuity even as it relates to any non-landmarked buildings or elements on the property to assure aesthetic consistency," said Brian Kosoy of Sterling Palm Beach.
The developers declined the guild's invitation to participate in the forum, because they will be too busy preparing for the Nov. 12 meeting and presenting their plan to the public, Kosoy said.
The developers, who have been showing their plan to select groups since Oct. 6, have said they will start letting the public see it in early November.
For information, contact Flynn at 366-8980.
By JAN SJOSTROM
Daily News Arts Editor
Click-2-Listen
The Palm Beach Theater Guild will hold a free public forum to discuss the proposed landmarking of the Royal Poinciana Plaza and the Royal Poinciana Playhouse at 4 p.m. Nov. 7 at Nick & Johnnie's Patio Bar and Grill, 207 Royal Poinciana Way.
The Town Council will consider the Landmarks Preservation Commission's recommendation that the properties by landmarked at its Nov. 12 meeting.
The panel will be moderated by guild board member Paul Noble. Other panelists will be Karen Nickless, field representative for the National Trust for Historic Preservation Southern Office; John Ripley, executive director of the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach; R. Douglas Hulse, treasurer of the Theater Guild board; and Tim Frank, who recently retired as the town planner.
The guild wants to save the Playhouse and operate it as a theater offering a middle-of-the road menu of produced and co-produced plays, one-night shows, children's programs and movie screenings. It also would rent the hall to other users.
"We encourage people to attend and to take a stand to encourage our Town Council to vote in favor of landmarking the Royal Poinciana Plaza," guild president Patrick Flynn said in a statement.
On Friday, the guild released a letter from the state Division of Historical Resources endorsing the landmarking and preservation of the Playhouse.
"The Playhouse is an important cultural and historical resource in Palm Beach, and we strongly recommend that every effort be made to preserve its historic architectural integrity throughout," wrote Barbara Mattick, chief of the bureau of historic preservation.
Sterling Palm Beach, which has a long-term lease on the plaza properties, has proposed demolishing all but the eastern facade of the 50-year-old, John Volk-designed Playhouse and building five-story condominiums in its place.
A study produced for the developers by consultant Duncan Webb concluded that re-opening the 878-seat Playhouse, which has been shuttered since 2004, is not financially viable.
The developers oppose landmarking the entire plaza and propose landmarking only the cupola that tops the Slat House, the Volk-designed commercial buildings and the Playhouse's east facade.
"My partners and I are further willing to have the entire property be overseen by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in perpetuity even as it relates to any non-landmarked buildings or elements on the property to assure aesthetic consistency," said Brian Kosoy of Sterling Palm Beach.
The developers declined the guild's invitation to participate in the forum, because they will be too busy preparing for the Nov. 12 meeting and presenting their plan to the public, Kosoy said.
The developers, who have been showing their plan to select groups since Oct. 6, have said they will start letting the public see it in early November.
For information, contact Flynn at 366-8980.
Condos at Royal Poinciana Plaza would violate Palm Beach master plan
Saturday, October 25, 2008
The Sterling Palm Beach plan for Poinciana Plaza is about building 30 condominiums, in violation of all zoning and the Town Master Plan. Without the condominiums, there is no chance Sterling will build a new theater. Even with them, I see the new theater as something coming later ... much later.
There is no chance Sterling would spend millions on a smaller new theater rather than get an existing larger theater renovated with other people's money except to get the waterfront condos. This has nothing to do with the theater. To coin a phrase: "It's about the condos, stupid."
Doug Hulse
Palm Beach
The Sterling Palm Beach plan for Poinciana Plaza is about building 30 condominiums, in violation of all zoning and the Town Master Plan. Without the condominiums, there is no chance Sterling will build a new theater. Even with them, I see the new theater as something coming later ... much later.
There is no chance Sterling would spend millions on a smaller new theater rather than get an existing larger theater renovated with other people's money except to get the waterfront condos. This has nothing to do with the theater. To coin a phrase: "It's about the condos, stupid."
Doug Hulse
Palm Beach
Forum on Landmarking and other events
Save the Dates!
November 7th – Forum on Landmarking – 4 PM - Nick & Johnnie’s Restaurant – Royal Poinciana Way - Palm Beach – Reception to follow
“Should the Royal Poinciana Plaza and Playhouse be landmarked?”
Panel Members
Karen Nickless, National Trust for Historic Preservation
Tim Frank, Town Planner – Palm Beach, retired
R. Douglas Hulse, Palm Beach Theater Guild
John Ripley, Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach
Bonnie Dearborn, State Division of Historical Resources
Moderator
Paul Noble, retired public broadcasting and Lifetime Channel Executive
Empty Chair
The local developer declined to participate.
November 10th – Palm Beach Theater Guild Party in honor of our new Artistic Advisor, Bradford Kenney – Bice at 6-8 PM
(http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/arts/content/arts/2008/10/22/kenney1023.html)
November 12th – Landmarking Vote at Town Council – Time certain for public hearing - 9:30 AM
Voice your opinion!
Send comments to http://mail.google.com/mail/h/1c6hhor9rdilt/?v=b&cs=wh&to=Council@townofpalmbeach.com.
Send comments to Newspapers at http://mail.google.com/mail/h/1c6hhor9rdilt/?v=b&cs=wh&to=PThomas@pbdailynews.com and http://mail.google.com/mail/h/1c6hhor9rdilt/?v=b&cs=wh&to=rshultz@pbpost.com.
Post comments at http://www.pbtheaterguild.blogspot.com/.
Become a member of the Guild and make secure contributions at http://www.pbtheaterguild.org/.
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!
Print this and save and pass on to a friend who wants to save the Poinciana Playhouse.
November 7th – Forum on Landmarking – 4 PM - Nick & Johnnie’s Restaurant – Royal Poinciana Way - Palm Beach – Reception to follow
“Should the Royal Poinciana Plaza and Playhouse be landmarked?”
Panel Members
Karen Nickless, National Trust for Historic Preservation
Tim Frank, Town Planner – Palm Beach, retired
R. Douglas Hulse, Palm Beach Theater Guild
John Ripley, Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach
Bonnie Dearborn, State Division of Historical Resources
Moderator
Paul Noble, retired public broadcasting and Lifetime Channel Executive
Empty Chair
The local developer declined to participate.
November 10th – Palm Beach Theater Guild Party in honor of our new Artistic Advisor, Bradford Kenney – Bice at 6-8 PM
(http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/arts/content/arts/2008/10/22/kenney1023.html)
November 12th – Landmarking Vote at Town Council – Time certain for public hearing - 9:30 AM
Voice your opinion!
Send comments to http://mail.google.com/mail/h/1c6hhor9rdilt/?v=b&cs=wh&to=Council@townofpalmbeach.com.
Send comments to Newspapers at http://mail.google.com/mail/h/1c6hhor9rdilt/?v=b&cs=wh&to=PThomas@pbdailynews.com and http://mail.google.com/mail/h/1c6hhor9rdilt/?v=b&cs=wh&to=rshultz@pbpost.com.
Post comments at http://www.pbtheaterguild.blogspot.com/.
Become a member of the Guild and make secure contributions at http://www.pbtheaterguild.org/.
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!
Print this and save and pass on to a friend who wants to save the Poinciana Playhouse.
Endorsement Letter
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Kurt S. Browning
Secretary of State
DIVISION OF HISTORICAL RESOURCES
Ms. Jane S. Day October 16, 2008
c/o Research Atlantica, Inc. for
Town of Palm Beach
728 Granada Drive
Boca Raton, Florida 33432
Dear Ms. Day:
It has come to our attention that substantial demolition of the Royal Poinciana Playhouse, leaving only the facade, is being considered. The playhouse is an important cultural and historical resource in Palm Beach, and we strongly recommend that every effort be made to preserve its historic architectural integrity throughout.
The Royal Poinciana Playhouse and its associated Plaza were designed by John L. Volk in 1957. Long recognized as one of the most important architects in the Town of Palm Beach, Volk is known for both residential design and public projects. The theater project was one of the most significant for Palm Beach during the late 1950s. It was built on the site of Henry Flagler's famed Royal Poinciana Hotel along the shoreline of Lake Worth. This place of prominence was not lost on Volk who debated whether to design the theater in a modern or traditional style. Volk opted to combine the elegance and permanence of the Regency style with an open modern site plan in order to accommodate both automobile and pedestrian traffic, as well as parking for the theater and the adjacent shopping area of the Plaza. This integration of design was extremely successful and exemplifies the balance between modern concepts of space with traditional architectural styling. The theater is a local landmark and as yet retains its architectural integrity. It is a potential candidate for nomination for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
In view of the significance of the Royal Poinciana Playhouse, we urge the Town to give every possible consideration to any action that may be taken to preserve its architectural integrity. The Division of Historical Resources has several programs, including a historic preservation grants program, that could possibly be of assistance in this effort. If we can provide you with any information regarding our programs, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely,
Barbara E. Mattick, Ph.D.
Chief, Bureau of Historic Preservation
500 S. Bronough Street · Tallahassee, FL 32399-0250 · http://www.flheritage.com/
Director's Office Archaeological Research Historic Preservation
(850) 245-6300 FAX: 245-6436 (850) 245-6444 FAX: 245-6436 (850) 245-6333
Kurt S. Browning
Secretary of State
DIVISION OF HISTORICAL RESOURCES
Ms. Jane S. Day October 16, 2008
c/o Research Atlantica, Inc. for
Town of Palm Beach
728 Granada Drive
Boca Raton, Florida 33432
Dear Ms. Day:
It has come to our attention that substantial demolition of the Royal Poinciana Playhouse, leaving only the facade, is being considered. The playhouse is an important cultural and historical resource in Palm Beach, and we strongly recommend that every effort be made to preserve its historic architectural integrity throughout.
The Royal Poinciana Playhouse and its associated Plaza were designed by John L. Volk in 1957. Long recognized as one of the most important architects in the Town of Palm Beach, Volk is known for both residential design and public projects. The theater project was one of the most significant for Palm Beach during the late 1950s. It was built on the site of Henry Flagler's famed Royal Poinciana Hotel along the shoreline of Lake Worth. This place of prominence was not lost on Volk who debated whether to design the theater in a modern or traditional style. Volk opted to combine the elegance and permanence of the Regency style with an open modern site plan in order to accommodate both automobile and pedestrian traffic, as well as parking for the theater and the adjacent shopping area of the Plaza. This integration of design was extremely successful and exemplifies the balance between modern concepts of space with traditional architectural styling. The theater is a local landmark and as yet retains its architectural integrity. It is a potential candidate for nomination for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
In view of the significance of the Royal Poinciana Playhouse, we urge the Town to give every possible consideration to any action that may be taken to preserve its architectural integrity. The Division of Historical Resources has several programs, including a historic preservation grants program, that could possibly be of assistance in this effort. If we can provide you with any information regarding our programs, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely,
Barbara E. Mattick, Ph.D.
Chief, Bureau of Historic Preservation
500 S. Bronough Street · Tallahassee, FL 32399-0250 · http://www.flheritage.com/
Director's Office Archaeological Research Historic Preservation
(850) 245-6300 FAX: 245-6436 (850) 245-6444 FAX: 245-6436 (850) 245-6333
Palm Beach Theater Guild taps Bradford Kenney as artistic adviser
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
By JAN SJOSTROM
Daily News Arts Editor
Click-2-Listen
The Palm Beach Theater Guild has appointed Bradford Kenney its unpaid artistic adviser as it rallies its forces in preparation for a Nov. 12 meeting at which the Town Council will consider landmarking the Royal Poinciana Plaza.
Kenney is the executive artistic director of the 75-year-old John Lane's Ogunquit Playhouse in the summer resort town of Ogunquit, Maine.
"He does the kind of work we would like to do, too," said Patrick Flynn, the guild's president and chief executive officer. "Programming is the most important thing in this if by some miracle we happen to get the theater."
The guild is campaigning to take control of the 50-year-old Royal Poinciana Playhouse in the plaza. The 878-seat John Volk-designed theater has been shuttered since 2004, when Clear Channel Entertainment pulled out, saying it was no longer viable as a Broadway roadhouse.
The Ogunquit Playhouse bills itself as the producer of "Broadway on the Beach." Recent seasons have featured Sally Struthers in Fiddler on the Roof, Andrea McArdle in Les Miserables and Lorenzo Lamas in The King and I.
The Royal Poinciana Playhouse and the Ogunquit Playhouse have a shared history. John Lane pioneered theater in Palm Beach before the Royal Poinciana Playhouse opened and directed both properties in the 1970s.
During the three years Kenney has run the 688-seat Ogunquit Playhouse, its annual operating budget has swelled from around $1 million to nearly $4 million, he said. About 90 percent of its income is earned, and it carries no debt, he said. The season has stretched 10 weeks to 21.
He's optimistic that the Royal Poinciana Playhouse can undergo a similar revival.
"There are fantastic tools already in place, given the facility and the nature of the community itself," Kenney said.
He sees a "synergy" between his theater and a reopened Royal Poinciana Playhouse in which the similarly sized venues, and perhaps others across the nation, could share shows.
Kenney has not toured the Playhouse and said he's only "passed through" Palm Beach. But he has talked with people who have worked there, he said.
He declined to comment on the report done by consultant Duncan Webb for Sterling Palm Beach, the developers seeking to redevelop the plaza. Webb concluded that the Playhouse would be too expensive to renovate and not economically viable.
"I would not be comfortable commenting on the report until after I've been on site and looked at the status of the building," Kenney said.
Sterling Palm Beach has proposed demolishing all but the Playhouse's eastern facade and building a 350-seat multi-use theater elsewhere on the property.
Brian Kosoy, one of the partners in Sterling Palm Beach, said the company stands behind Webb's findings.
"We fully understand Mr. Flynn doesn't like the conclusions reached by Duncan Webb," he said. "While that's unfortunate, the facts remain what they are, and our plan for the plaza reflects a versatile, appropriately sized performing arts venue that answers needs expressed by the residents of the town."
An 878-seat theater could be viable under the right leadership and would have a positive cultural and economic impact on the community, Kenney said. When asked about competition from the Kravis Center, which is starting a Broadway series this season, Kenney said there's room for both theaters.
Kenney said he was not aware of Palm Beach's town-serving rule that requires larger businesses to draw at least 50 percent of their patrons from the town. Most of the Ogunquit's patrons are not the town's affluent residents but tourists or people living within a 70-mile radius, he said.
The Ogunquit also rarely rents its space to other cultural groups — something the guild says it wants to do with the Playhouse — and it has no theaters nearby offering the same kind of programming.
Kenney plans to visit Palm Beach to assist the guild in gathering support. During that time, he will attempt to inspect the building and review the guild's business plan for the theater, he said.
He also will meet with guild board members and honorary trustees and participate in public meetings arranged by the guild, Flynn said.
The guild's board did not vote on Kenney's appointment as adviser.
"It isn't a voting matter," Flynn said. "I polled everybody and they know about it."
Flynn saw The King and I at the Ogunquit. Arlene Dahl, who serves on the guild's Committee of Stars, is Lamas' mother. Kenney's appointment has been in the works for about a year, Flynn said.
"All along, we knew full well we needed an artistic adviser or director and an organization in depth," said R. Douglas Hulse, a guild board member and Palm Beach resident. "It was getting old and tired to say we could find somebody when we get control of the theater. We decided to start putting these people in place."
Flynn said he'd like the guild to establish a long-term relationship with Kenney if the guild's plans come to fruition and Kenney is available.
Kenney said it would be a shame to let a historic property like the Playhouse be torn down.
"The community leaders should cross every 'T' and dot every 'I' before they even consider letting something like that in your community go," he said.
By JAN SJOSTROM
Daily News Arts Editor
Click-2-Listen
The Palm Beach Theater Guild has appointed Bradford Kenney its unpaid artistic adviser as it rallies its forces in preparation for a Nov. 12 meeting at which the Town Council will consider landmarking the Royal Poinciana Plaza.
Kenney is the executive artistic director of the 75-year-old John Lane's Ogunquit Playhouse in the summer resort town of Ogunquit, Maine.
"He does the kind of work we would like to do, too," said Patrick Flynn, the guild's president and chief executive officer. "Programming is the most important thing in this if by some miracle we happen to get the theater."
The guild is campaigning to take control of the 50-year-old Royal Poinciana Playhouse in the plaza. The 878-seat John Volk-designed theater has been shuttered since 2004, when Clear Channel Entertainment pulled out, saying it was no longer viable as a Broadway roadhouse.
The Ogunquit Playhouse bills itself as the producer of "Broadway on the Beach." Recent seasons have featured Sally Struthers in Fiddler on the Roof, Andrea McArdle in Les Miserables and Lorenzo Lamas in The King and I.
The Royal Poinciana Playhouse and the Ogunquit Playhouse have a shared history. John Lane pioneered theater in Palm Beach before the Royal Poinciana Playhouse opened and directed both properties in the 1970s.
During the three years Kenney has run the 688-seat Ogunquit Playhouse, its annual operating budget has swelled from around $1 million to nearly $4 million, he said. About 90 percent of its income is earned, and it carries no debt, he said. The season has stretched 10 weeks to 21.
He's optimistic that the Royal Poinciana Playhouse can undergo a similar revival.
"There are fantastic tools already in place, given the facility and the nature of the community itself," Kenney said.
He sees a "synergy" between his theater and a reopened Royal Poinciana Playhouse in which the similarly sized venues, and perhaps others across the nation, could share shows.
Kenney has not toured the Playhouse and said he's only "passed through" Palm Beach. But he has talked with people who have worked there, he said.
He declined to comment on the report done by consultant Duncan Webb for Sterling Palm Beach, the developers seeking to redevelop the plaza. Webb concluded that the Playhouse would be too expensive to renovate and not economically viable.
"I would not be comfortable commenting on the report until after I've been on site and looked at the status of the building," Kenney said.
Sterling Palm Beach has proposed demolishing all but the Playhouse's eastern facade and building a 350-seat multi-use theater elsewhere on the property.
Brian Kosoy, one of the partners in Sterling Palm Beach, said the company stands behind Webb's findings.
"We fully understand Mr. Flynn doesn't like the conclusions reached by Duncan Webb," he said. "While that's unfortunate, the facts remain what they are, and our plan for the plaza reflects a versatile, appropriately sized performing arts venue that answers needs expressed by the residents of the town."
An 878-seat theater could be viable under the right leadership and would have a positive cultural and economic impact on the community, Kenney said. When asked about competition from the Kravis Center, which is starting a Broadway series this season, Kenney said there's room for both theaters.
Kenney said he was not aware of Palm Beach's town-serving rule that requires larger businesses to draw at least 50 percent of their patrons from the town. Most of the Ogunquit's patrons are not the town's affluent residents but tourists or people living within a 70-mile radius, he said.
The Ogunquit also rarely rents its space to other cultural groups — something the guild says it wants to do with the Playhouse — and it has no theaters nearby offering the same kind of programming.
Kenney plans to visit Palm Beach to assist the guild in gathering support. During that time, he will attempt to inspect the building and review the guild's business plan for the theater, he said.
He also will meet with guild board members and honorary trustees and participate in public meetings arranged by the guild, Flynn said.
The guild's board did not vote on Kenney's appointment as adviser.
"It isn't a voting matter," Flynn said. "I polled everybody and they know about it."
Flynn saw The King and I at the Ogunquit. Arlene Dahl, who serves on the guild's Committee of Stars, is Lamas' mother. Kenney's appointment has been in the works for about a year, Flynn said.
"All along, we knew full well we needed an artistic adviser or director and an organization in depth," said R. Douglas Hulse, a guild board member and Palm Beach resident. "It was getting old and tired to say we could find somebody when we get control of the theater. We decided to start putting these people in place."
Flynn said he'd like the guild to establish a long-term relationship with Kenney if the guild's plans come to fruition and Kenney is available.
Kenney said it would be a shame to let a historic property like the Playhouse be torn down.
"The community leaders should cross every 'T' and dot every 'I' before they even consider letting something like that in your community go," he said.
Artistic Advisor Appointed
OCTOBER 21, 2008
PALM BEACH, FLORIDA
The Board of Trustees of the Palm Beach Theater Guild has announced the appointment of Bradford Kenney to the position of artistic advisor.
Kenney will serve in a part time role with the Palm Beach Theater Guild and will maintain his position as executive artistic director of the Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit, Maine.
"As Executive Artistic Director of the Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit, Maine, Brad Kenney recently produced Sally Struthers in Hello Dolly!, Andrea McArdle in Cabaret and Leslie Uggams in Cinderella. Brad Kenney has created outstanding productions with major stars," says Patrick Henry Flynn President and CEO of thePalm Beach Theater Guild.
“He has the expertise to enable the Palm Beach Theater Guild,” Flynn continues, “to fulfill its artistic mission, which is very comparable to what Kenney is mounting.”
“Kenney’s current experience in managing and programming a mid-size theater also fits our business model for theater at the Royal Poinciana Playhouse” Flynn adds. “Regional Subscription Theater will be our primary revenue stream.”
Prior to joining the Ogunquit Playhouse, Kenney enjoyed critical acclaim at the Foothills Theater in Worcester, MA where he produced season highlights such as Miss Saigon, Disney's Beauty & The Beast, Cabaret, Dick and Jimmy Van Patten in The Sunshine Boys, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet and many other shows.
He is also Co-founder of the Wachusett Theatre Company in Massachusetts with shows such as The Sound of Music, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Disney/Elton John's AIDA (Northeast Regional Premiere), Ted Lange from The Love Boat in Damn Yankees; and Eddie Mekka from Laverne & Shirley in Fiddler on the Roof, among others. Over the past 10 years, his children's theatres have produced Disney's Jungle Book Kids, Seussical TYA (Northeast premiere) and Disney's 101 Dalmations Kids among others.
Kenney has appeared on stage in the title role of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Sorcerer with Salisbury Lyric Opera, Strephon in Iolanthe with the Savoyard Light Opera, Billy Bigelow in Carousel, Barrett the Stoker in Titanic, Eric Burling in An Inspector Calls, Christopher Wren in The Mousetrap, Bobby in Company, Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls, the King in The King and I, Cornelius in Hello Dolly! and Oberon in Midsummer Night's Dream, as well as many other roles in shows throughout New England. He is also a fourth generation artist (an accomplished watercolorist) having studied at Rhode Island School of Design, Heartwood College of Art and Maine College of Art.
Kenney is following in the footsteps of John Lane who was the director of the Royal Poinciana Playhouse during the 60s and 70s Lane founded the Ogunquit Playhouse which has almost as many seats as the Royal Poinciana Playhouse.
_________________________________________
"A strong appointment substantively and, strategically, a chance to redefine the public debate and reshuffle the political equation. This should go a long way toward discrediting the developer's argument that the Playhouse is no longer commercially viable.
It occurred to me, as it has to you, that the developer's commitment to preserving Mr. Volk's architecture is nothing more than a "facade" (literally).
Keep up the fight,
Allan Schlosser
Digital Media PR/Palm Beach Strategies"
____________________________________________
"Congratulations on another heroic achievement in saving the theater. This appointment really is genius and in a sane world would put to rest any further doubt about the project's viability.
Your vision and perseverance are making it happen, and I hope to be back in Palm Beach to be of assistance in the future.
With admiration and every good thought and prayer for ultimate success,
Valerie Sherlock "
PALM BEACH, FLORIDA
The Board of Trustees of the Palm Beach Theater Guild has announced the appointment of Bradford Kenney to the position of artistic advisor.
Kenney will serve in a part time role with the Palm Beach Theater Guild and will maintain his position as executive artistic director of the Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit, Maine.
"As Executive Artistic Director of the Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit, Maine, Brad Kenney recently produced Sally Struthers in Hello Dolly!, Andrea McArdle in Cabaret and Leslie Uggams in Cinderella. Brad Kenney has created outstanding productions with major stars," says Patrick Henry Flynn President and CEO of thePalm Beach Theater Guild.
“He has the expertise to enable the Palm Beach Theater Guild,” Flynn continues, “to fulfill its artistic mission, which is very comparable to what Kenney is mounting.”
“Kenney’s current experience in managing and programming a mid-size theater also fits our business model for theater at the Royal Poinciana Playhouse” Flynn adds. “Regional Subscription Theater will be our primary revenue stream.”
Prior to joining the Ogunquit Playhouse, Kenney enjoyed critical acclaim at the Foothills Theater in Worcester, MA where he produced season highlights such as Miss Saigon, Disney's Beauty & The Beast, Cabaret, Dick and Jimmy Van Patten in The Sunshine Boys, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet and many other shows.
He is also Co-founder of the Wachusett Theatre Company in Massachusetts with shows such as The Sound of Music, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Disney/Elton John's AIDA (Northeast Regional Premiere), Ted Lange from The Love Boat in Damn Yankees; and Eddie Mekka from Laverne & Shirley in Fiddler on the Roof, among others. Over the past 10 years, his children's theatres have produced Disney's Jungle Book Kids, Seussical TYA (Northeast premiere) and Disney's 101 Dalmations Kids among others.
Kenney has appeared on stage in the title role of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Sorcerer with Salisbury Lyric Opera, Strephon in Iolanthe with the Savoyard Light Opera, Billy Bigelow in Carousel, Barrett the Stoker in Titanic, Eric Burling in An Inspector Calls, Christopher Wren in The Mousetrap, Bobby in Company, Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls, the King in The King and I, Cornelius in Hello Dolly! and Oberon in Midsummer Night's Dream, as well as many other roles in shows throughout New England. He is also a fourth generation artist (an accomplished watercolorist) having studied at Rhode Island School of Design, Heartwood College of Art and Maine College of Art.
Kenney is following in the footsteps of John Lane who was the director of the Royal Poinciana Playhouse during the 60s and 70s Lane founded the Ogunquit Playhouse which has almost as many seats as the Royal Poinciana Playhouse.
_________________________________________
"A strong appointment substantively and, strategically, a chance to redefine the public debate and reshuffle the political equation. This should go a long way toward discrediting the developer's argument that the Playhouse is no longer commercially viable.
It occurred to me, as it has to you, that the developer's commitment to preserving Mr. Volk's architecture is nothing more than a "facade" (literally).
Keep up the fight,
Allan Schlosser
Digital Media PR/Palm Beach Strategies"
____________________________________________
"Congratulations on another heroic achievement in saving the theater. This appointment really is genius and in a sane world would put to rest any further doubt about the project's viability.
Your vision and perseverance are making it happen, and I hope to be back in Palm Beach to be of assistance in the future.
With admiration and every good thought and prayer for ultimate success,
Valerie Sherlock "
Saturday, November 1, 2008
FLORIDA ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIAN TO JOIN NOVEMBER 7 FORUM ON LANDMARKING
October 28, 2008
Palm Beach, Florida
The Palm Beach Theater
Guild, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the John L. Volk Foundation, hosts of the November 7 forum on landmarking of the Royal Poinciana Plaza and Playhouse, are pleased to announce that architectural historian Bonnie Dearborn will join the panel of experts.
Dearborn worked directly with the State of Florida in Historic Preservation for approximately 11 years as administrator of the South Florida Regional Preservation Office of the Division of Historic Resources. She continues her preservation consulting work for the state through her own firm Dearborn Preservation Research, Inc. in Boca Raton.
The panel will be moderated by former Vice President for Films of Lifetime Cable, Paul R. Noble. Other members of the panel will include Karen Nickless, Director of the Southeast Field Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, John Ripley, Executive Director, the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach, R. Douglas Hulse, Trustee and Treasurer of the Palm Beach Theater Guild, Tim Frank, long time town planner for the City of Palm Beach, who recently retired.
The forum, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 4PM at Nick & Johnnie’s Restaurant on Royal Poinciana Way and North County Road in Palm Beach.
###
CONTACT:
Patrick Henry Flynn, President
Palm Beach Theater Guild, Inc.
POB 667, Palm Beach, FL 33480
T. 561 366-8980; F. 561 833-6865
http://www.pbtheaterguild.org/
Palm Beach, Florida
The Palm Beach Theater
Guild, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the John L. Volk Foundation, hosts of the November 7 forum on landmarking of the Royal Poinciana Plaza and Playhouse, are pleased to announce that architectural historian Bonnie Dearborn will join the panel of experts.
Dearborn worked directly with the State of Florida in Historic Preservation for approximately 11 years as administrator of the South Florida Regional Preservation Office of the Division of Historic Resources. She continues her preservation consulting work for the state through her own firm Dearborn Preservation Research, Inc. in Boca Raton.
The panel will be moderated by former Vice President for Films of Lifetime Cable, Paul R. Noble. Other members of the panel will include Karen Nickless, Director of the Southeast Field Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, John Ripley, Executive Director, the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach, R. Douglas Hulse, Trustee and Treasurer of the Palm Beach Theater Guild, Tim Frank, long time town planner for the City of Palm Beach, who recently retired.
The forum, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 4PM at Nick & Johnnie’s Restaurant on Royal Poinciana Way and North County Road in Palm Beach.
###
CONTACT:
Patrick Henry Flynn, President
Palm Beach Theater Guild, Inc.
POB 667, Palm Beach, FL 33480
T. 561 366-8980; F. 561 833-6865
http://www.pbtheaterguild.org/
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