What's new regarding redevelopment of Hollywood's iconic Young Circle area, esp. the Hollywood Bread Building block?
Above, looking south from the Young Circle ArtsPark towards U.S.-1/Federal Highway and the Hollywood Bread Building that has been there since 1969. June 22, 2021 photo by me.
Above, the Hollywood Historical Society's bust to Hollywood founder and its first mayor, Joseph Young, on the west side of The ArtsPark at Young Circle - "Joseph Young: His vision and courage created this city."
Unfortunately, far too often, too many elected officials and people with power and influence in South Florida -and Hollywood and Hallandale Beach in particular- have lacked either vision or courage, to say nothing of a willingness to do the hard work necessary, to see the larger picture for the community. You want to to shake these people and tell them to stop okaying developer plans for something that's the very definition of the words ordinary and pedestrian, all because they want to show the public that they are doing... something.
No, consistently making bad decisions is NOT doing something, it's negating the positive possibilities that could make the area better and more dynamic.
And to answer a question you haven't asked but which is always omnipresent in South Florida, it's why, considering the size of the population in South Florida, that there are so few truly iconic buildings that the public genuinely enjoys and even loves to see and be present at. I know because I've been at all the ones that are worth a damn and which always cause an emotion in you as you approach it.
As the long, hot and humid summer of 2021 drags on towards the dog days of late July, when the Miami Dolphins training camp starts up in earnest and we know in our mind that there are only a few more miserable rainy weeks left of summer before things begin to return to a sense of normalcy around here, and the NFL preseason starts, just about everywhere I go around Hollywood and environs, whether to Mickey Byrne's Irish Pub, Hollywood City Hall, or any of the 3-4 Panera Bread, Walmart or Publix supermarket locations in the area I frequent, I am asked some variation of the same thing:
With real progress finally self-evident by all the construction taking place at the site of the former Great Southern Hotel on Block 40 -the southwest corner of Young Circle, between Harrison Street and Hollywood Blvd. off of US-1- what's the latest news with the iconic Hollywood Bread Building, located on the southeast corner of the circle, on what is Block 58?
That, of course, is the block that's been an open community eyesore and embarrassment for the past two decades, as one well-publicized but ultimately under-financed redevelopment project after another has been proposed there, only to fall away and become the latest project that bit the dust.
In many ways, that particular block, Block 57, has been like a thumb to the community's collective eye of any notion of logical and sensible redevelopment in the area, made worse when the Publix Supermarket on the east side of the circle that, along with the still-extant Walgreen's Drug store & Liquor Store, had served as an anchor for the small shops there for decades, finally jumped across the street to their new bigger and-better location on the northeast corner of Block 55, leaving a very large building in the area unoccupied for years, producing neither revenue for the city or generating jobs for area residents.
And some good news may finally be at hand and actually stick this time.
I'm working on a lengthy post here in the near-future, detailing the various plans, proposals, and even the pie-in-the-sky efforts to turn that area around that have been made public in the 17 years since I returned to South Florida in 2003, after 15 years of working and living in the Washington, D.C./Arlington County area, and began attending City Commission and community meetings in both Hollywood and Hallandale Beach.
But until then, since there are so many new readers coming to the blog every day who don't know what has and hasn't taken place in the past, while I've decided to be more detailed than usual in that future post, today's post was just a teaser, plus a link to what could be and perhaps STILL should be a vision of the area's future, and, what the city has considered its preferable way of developing the area to make it more attractive and interesting for all parties concerned.
It was made nearly 17 years ago thru the auspices of the Hollywood CRA that architect, urban designer and consultant Daniel Zyscovich and his staff drew up and became his 2004 Downtown Hollywood Master Plan, specifically, his Vision of Young Circle: http://www.hollywoodcra.org/DocumentCenter/View/50/Young_Circle_Vision_2004?bidId=
Since he founded Zyscovich Architects in 1977, he and his staff has designed the full spectrum of projects, from transportation facilities and airports to K-12 schools and universities, mixed-use commercial and public-private partnership developments to multi-family residential high rises and master plans for cities from Bogota Columbia to Miami to New York City.
After reading this report of his and becoming familiar with what was seen by a visionary person thru several Zyscovich Plan forums around the city, all of which I attended at the time, you'll have a good foundation for understanding why some of the past proposals would have left the Hollywood residents and stakeholders of today with some very imperfect realities.
Which is to say, that as depressing as the situation on the south side of Young Circle has been for years, as everyone agrees, we are lucky to have avoided some awful plans that would have left us and the city with a lot less attractive alternatives now.
Trust me, many of you have no idea how bad some of the past proposals were.
But soon, I'll be reminding you, as well as making some observations on the plan the city has approved.
Dave
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