Roach Killing

One Structure That Bugs Some Residents Is Getting the Boot

By Lee Molloy

City agrees to pay $5K to kill a roach. Photo by Angie Hargot

Architect Carlos Zapata’s work is well-known to residents of South Beach. He is the talent behind the Publix on the Bay supermarket on West Avenue. Zapata also designed the controversial fountain called The Wing, which, because of its shape—and perhaps its character—is also known as “The Roach,” located where Lincoln Road meets Washington Avenue.

Since its construction, the fountain has been used as an unofficial shelter for the city’s homeless population, and as a canvas for graffiti artists. Additionally, any damage that is done to the glass panels by vandalism costs taxpayers $20,000 per panel, which has led the city to look for ways to reduce the cost of maintenance.

“The city asked if I would give them suggestions for the Roach,” said Robert Wennett, owner and developer of 1111 Lincoln Road. With that in mind, Wennett enlisted Amanda Cox of LARC Design to come up with some initial ideas.

It was standing-room-only at the Finance and Citywide Projects Committee meeting at Miami Beach City Hall on Tuesday, Nov. 18, when Cox presented her initial ideas to the committee.

“You actually have a gateway into Lincoln Road,” Cox said as she presented four proposals for the Roach. Each involved permanently removing the glass panels “to create more of a transparency” for some “minimal interventions that carry the character of Lincoln Road.”

The majority of the structures down the center of the Lincoln Road mall were designed by world-famous architect Morris Lapidus, and the discussion soon turned to looking at what he had originally designed for the location.

“With the Fontainebleau being redone and Morris Lapidus being of high acclaim, I, for one, would like to see what he designed there,” said Commissioner Saul Gross. 

A “Morris Lapidus [structure] was there and was taken down — so, we would have to rebuild it,” said Mayor Matti Bower, who also wanted to know about the maintenance cost associated with the various solutions and the costs of construction. 

Because Cox had done the initial design ideas pro bono, the committee agreed to pay $5,000 to develop a full cost analysis of her designs, along with a comparison to the cost of rebuilding the Lapidus structure, to be presented to the city at their next meeting in December.

“The next step,” Cox said, “is to give the city a tangible plan.”

Comments? E-mail lee@miamisunpost.com.

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