Exterior street-side view of Pudong Development Bank in Shanghai

DECO IN DANGER

Shanghai’s population of roughly 18 million, city planners forecast, will rise to 25 million by the year 2020, just 13 years from now.

“They need to build cities, not just buildings,” Farkas says.

Despite this large population, there are only 632 protected historic sites in the entire city.

Louisa Lim, in her Dec. 13 piece for NPR, “Evictions Reflect Dark Side of Shanghai Growth,” writes, “As Shanghai undergoes a radical facelift, tens of thousands of residents are forcibly evicted from their apartments each year. Many have accused unscrupulous real-estate developers of conspiring with corrupt government officials to seize their property for little or no compensation.”

Lim’s article goes on to document the struggle of a group of Shanghai residents living in an “Art Deco building dating from 1928” who “say they’re being unfairly thrown out as part of an urban-renewal scheme.”

“What we want to do is show them that the successful preservation and restoration of historic structures really generated the rebirth of Miami Beach,” says Farkas. “In the late ’70s and ’80s, it sucked on Miami Beach. The economic engine that drove the rebirth, the redevelopment on Miami Beach, clearly was the restoration of historic structures.”

A recently completed project reveals a further link between Miami Beach and Shanghai.

Ben Wood, who authored master plans for the revitalization of Lincoln Road and the Art Deco District in Miami Beach in 1992, has set up a full-time design studio in Shanghai. Wood designed Xintiandi in 2003, a $200 million “entertainment environment” in downtown Shanghai, consisting of two blocks of restaurants, clubs and shops. Xintiandi and Lincoln Road are very similar in purpose, but also in design theory, making use of, instead of tearing down, existing historic buildings, and using traditional design styles as part of the attraction.

Wood will be in Miami giving a lecture on the Xintiandi project on Saturday, Jan. 13, as part of Art Deco Weekend.

Back in the 1970s, during the era when “things sucked,” as Farkas described, Miami Beach’s older buildings, many of them constructed in the 1920s and 1930s, had no protection and were often demolished. In an effort to protect these buildings, Barbara Baer Capitman formed MDPL. In 1976, as a means of educating and informing the masses about Art Deco, Capitman started Art Deco Weekend. What started out as “a tiny little thing,” as former Art Deco Weekend Director Dennis Wilhelm remembered, which drew 100 people to the Cardozo Hotel, eventually evolved into a street fair so massive that it attracted hundreds of thousands of people, requiring Ocean Drive from Fifth to 15th streets to be shut off from vehicular traffic.

Art Deco Weekend’s popularity more or less grew with the economic vitality of South Beach’s historic district. And economics, by the way, is the other reason why Art Deco Weekend is welcoming 21 delegates from Shanghai.

TRADE

“It’s sort of unreal,” Farkas says. “We’re a little historic preservation society. I would think that the city of Miami or the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau would be hosting [these dignitaries]. When the Chinese middle class realizes they have enough money to travel, which is going to happen very soon, we hope they come here; I mean that’s the ultimate payout.”

For some, forming a relationship between China and Miami Beach has been a longstanding project.

“There are studies that show that in 2020 the U.S. anticipates 100 million tourists from China,” says Miami Beach Commissioner Jerry Libbin. “We need to position ourselves in Miami Beach to get our fair share of that tourism.… This group of 20 or so from Shanghai is like an ambassador group for Miami Beach.”

Libbin has taken trips to Shanghai and other parts of China on his own, and has arranged junkets with officials and businesspeople from Miami Beach to China as well as trips for Chinese officials and entrepreneurs to Miami Beach. Libbin says he wants to “reach out to the Chinese to encourage tourism to Miami Beach.”

He also notes that Miami Beach culture is what will attract Chinese tourists.“Asians are not particularly fond of the beach,” Libbin says, with a slight laugh. “They’re not sun-worshippers. But [when they come here] we see that they are very attracted to our cultural elements.”

Libbin also notes that Miami Beach cannot remain a tourist destination simply for “nightlife and clubs.” He believes a unified cultural identity, of which building design style is an important element, is necessary for attracting world travelers.

“We’re a tourist town,” Farkas adds, “so we hope they come here. Maybe they’ll even bring some money and invest it here. Maybe some of our people will go and invest in China.

“Maybe we won’t be shooting atom bombs at each other 10 years from now.”

Art Deco Weekend, which includes lectures, films, a street fair, tours and more, takes place from Friday through Sunday, along Ocean Drive, between Fifth and 15th streets. For more information visit www.mdpl.org.

Comments? E-mail ryan@miamisunpost.com.