Joel EngelhardtCity clears developer to demolish stairs, dealing blow to preservationists who argued the grand stairway to be an integral part of the 1926 building.
With no further ado, West Palm Beach allowed the removal last week of three-fifths of the grand stairway leading into the Harriet Himmel Theater at CityPlace.
Catch up quick: When last in public discussion, the city planning director assured the city’s Historic Preservation Board that plans to convert the church into a food hall would not violate the standards of the U.S. Interior secretary.
Why it’s important: City residents who attended the First United Methodist Church before it fell into disrepair and became the centerpiece of CityPlace, said the developers had promised to maintain its historic integrity. The outcry prompted the formation of a Preservation Foundation of West Palm Beach, modeled on one in Palm Beach.
They argued removal of the stairs fell far short of the Interior secretary’s standards but the city produced an email exchange with a state preservation planner who opined “we do not think that this iteration of stairs needs to be retained as is.”
As for designating the 1926 building as historic, City Attorney Kim Rothenburg drafted a memo that assured the preservation board it could not be designated based on zoning that dates to 1989. See the memo here.
- The city granted the demolition permit, valued at $8.3 million, on July 18.
The CityPlace developers, headed by Stephen Ross, submitted plans in May showing they would keep the outer two columns of stairs but remove the inner three. The stairs had been rebuilt to historic standards before CityPlace opened in 2000.
Of note: The new stairway no longer will provide entry to the building.
