The Dade Commonwealth Building

 
history:                                                                                                                      

Miami's downtown 7-story, 43,265 square-foot Dade Commonwealth Building, at 139 N.E. First Street, was once one of Miami's tallest buildings at 17-stories, known as the Meyer-Kiser Building.  It was home to Florida's first elevator.  However, just one year after the building's completion, only the first 7 floors survived the devastating 1926 Miami Hurricane.

              

During the 1950s, the Meyer-Kiser Building was known as the American Bank Building, as it housed the state's largest vault.  The Mosler Safe Co. vault door registered in at 9 feet and weighed 32 tons - and it still does.  On January 4th, 1989, the Meyer-Kiser Building was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Architect: Martin L. Hampton, 1925
Commercial Vernacular with Neoclassical Features

 

 

today:

    

The Dade Commonwealth Building has recently gone through an extensive rehabilitation, headed by Jay V. Suarez, Partner - Titan Development.  As evidenced by these close-ups, no detail was overlooked.  Architectural details include carved eagles on the cornice, Doric columns beneath a parapet containing carved urns and the protruding silhouettes of Corinthian columns.

 

 

The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it.

- Epicurus