History
Originally completed in 1925 as the headquarters and printing facility of the newspaper The Miami News, it is an example of Mediterranean Revival style with design elements borrowed from the Giralda Tower in Seville, Spain. Its cupola on a 255 foot (78 m) tower contained a decorative beacon.
The Miami News vacated the building in 1957 to relocate to a new facility on the Miami River. As refugees from Cuba fleeing Fidel Castro's communist regime arrived in Miami during the 1960s, the federal government used the facility to process, document and provide medical and dental services for the newcomers. After the major era of refugees ended in 1972, the government sold the building to private ownership in 1974. In 1979, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1997 the building was purchased for US$4.1 million by Jorge Mas Canosa, founder of MasTec and initiator of the Cuban American National Foundation, and restored and converted into a monument for the refugees who fled to the United States from communist Cuba. It housed a museum, library, meeting hall, and the offices of the Cuban American National Foundation.
In 2004, the Freedom Tower was purchased by developer Pedro Martin and his company, Terra Group, who proposed a new building (possibly condominiums) on an adjacent part of the property. Preservationists opposed the plan, and during 2005 the developers donated Freedom Tower to Miami Dade College, which is using it as a cultural and educational center. The city later granted approval to the developers to build on the back of the property without demolishing the original tower.
More recently, Miami Dade College has hosted major exhibitions including showcasing the works of masters Dali, Goya and Da Vinci since the Martin family donated the tower to the institution. It has plans to expand the offerings at the Tower and install exhibitions commemorating the Freedom Tower’s past as the home of a major newspaper and the site where hundreds of thousands of Cuban refugees were processed. The college will also commemorate the building’s architecture. It recently restored The New World Mural, Painted by The Miami Artisans in 1988. Wade S. Foy, John Conroy, William Mark Coulthard, Phylis Shaw, Gerome Villa Bergsen and Ana Bikic.
Read more about this topic: Freedom Tower (Miami)
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