Tony Goldman didn’t think of himself as just a real estate developer. Instead, as his daughter Jessica Goldman Srebnick, co-chairman of Goldman Properties, recalled, “he found beauty in the blight” and built buildings in neglected urban areas. Invested in revitalization.
In the 1970s, Tony Goldman purchased old buildings and breathed new life into them in the former manufacturing district of Lower Manhattan, now known as SoHo. As son Joey Goldman says, “The underlying architecture was really special.”
A former foundry in SoHo has been converted into popular loft apartments and restaurants, and an iconic Art Deco hotel in Miami Beach is two of those rescued from ruin and the best of Tony Goldman’s vision. This is a known example.
Joey Goldman, co-chairman of Goldman Properties, said: “It meant a lot to my father that a young country like America had great architecture.” “He was able to return[the building]to its original design or reinvent it in a way that respected architecture.”
Tony Goldman’s family, from left: Jessica Goldman Srebnick, Joey Goldman, Janet Goldman.
In 2005, it was Joey Goldman who brought run-down Wynwood, north of downtown Miami, to his father’s attention. Wynwood is a very different type of neighborhood than the one that Tony Goldman made famous, and it doesn’t have the distinctive historic architecture that it once did. It drew him to SoHo and South Beach.
After starting construction on six buildings in 2007, Tony Goldman came up with the inspired idea of using a blank warehouse wall as a canvas for a dynamic graffiti artist, and in December 2009 during Art Basel. welcomed the world to Wynwood Walls. This former warehouse area is now one of Miami’s most popular neighborhoods. Arts and entertainment district and hotbed of creativity.
In a conversation with Srebnick, Joey Goldman, and their mother, Janet Goldman, co-founder and chairman emeritus of Goldman Properties, as they talk about their father and husband. Certain words kept popping up: creative, visionary, courageous, energetic, generous, and optimistic. ,romantic. “Tony was a romantic developer,” Janet Goldman asserted.
“Tony was passionate about blighted areas,” she continued. “His spatial awareness was amazing, he was thinking in Technicolor. And the worse the area, the more excited he would be. He could peel the onion and get to the heart of what was great about the area. Then he will go to work.”
Twelve years after Tony Goldman’s death, Janet Goldman honors her husband’s vision and legacy by creating the Tony Goldman Endowed Director of Real Estate Development and Urban Planning at the University of Miami School of Architecture. We are donating $1.5 million. Her gift is part of the university’s “Ever Brighter: The Campaign for Our Next Century.” The campaign, the most ambitious in the university’s history, is due to conclude next year, when the university celebrates its 100th anniversary.
The Goldman director will serve as director of the Master of Real Estate Development and Urban Planning (MRED+U) program. One of the school’s signature programs, MRED+U, is an interdisciplinary program that blends the fundamentals of real estate development and livable community design.
Rodolphe El Khoury, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, said: This solidifies Professor Charles Ball’s position and stature as the first Tony Goldman Director, and leverages the endowment and the legendary legacy that comes with his name to ensure that the program will provide top-notch talent to his successor. You can continue to earn. ”
“Our former dean, Elizabeth Prater Zyberk, first introduced me to Tony, and he was instrumental in shaping our program even before it existed.” , recalls Ball, professor of architecture, founding director of MRED+U, and inaugural holder of the Goldman Prize. Directorate. “As one of our 12 founding board members, Tony helped bring our ideas for an immersive student experience to life in South Florida and led the monumental first class orientation tour in South Beach. We hosted our first destination.
“When we launched our mentorship program and told him how many students asked him to be a mentor, he invited everyone to spend an afternoon with him. , I learned first-hand the skills and passion that Tony brings to transforming neglected neighborhoods into beloved places.”
Livability and sense of place, concepts championed by the MRED+U program, were core elements of Tony Goldman’s vision. As Joey Goldman explained, this means, among other things, opening restaurants and other gathering places where people live. “When you have a regional vision, you have to think about the overall vision,” he said. “And hospitality businesses are key to regional revitalization because the first thing people want to do is go to a great restaurant.
“It’s deeply ingrained in what we do,” continued Joey Goldman. “When I bought a property in Wynwood, we opened a restaurant, Joey’s Wynwood Cafe. When my father bought a lot of property in Soho, he bought a lot of real estate in Soho. When my father came to Miami Beach in 1985, he opened a restaurant called Lucky’s to start his life.As my father used to say, “Feed your neighbors.” , the idea is that the neighborhood feeds you.”
And, as Srebnick pointed out, every project is unique. “We have started developing a model, and that model may change based on the neighborhood,” she said. “What we do in South Beach is different than what we do in Center City, Philadelphia, and (by extension) what we do in Wynwood. Each neighborhood has its own DNA. And my father was smart enough to recognize that and look for big ideas that could take that DNA to another level and create a thriving, world-class destination. That was his secret sauce. It was the source.”
Janet Goldman is honored by the partnership with the School of Architecture, which is embodied in Tony Goldman’s directorship. “Tony was truly respected and valued by the University of Miami and the people there who knew him,” she recalled. “I felt that naming him after him was one of the greatest honors I wanted to bestow. He wanted to be remembered as a place maker and for his love for his neighborhood and community.”
“Tony leaves a living legacy in the many people he inspired and who came to share his passion for place-making, starting with his own family and extending to literally hundreds of entrepreneurs. , artists, preservationists, architects, small business owners, spread across the city; mentors, colleagues, students, and yes, a few professors who always made time for me,” Ball said. . “Thanks to the generosity of Janet Goldman and the Goldman family, his legacy will continue to inspire future generations of placemakers in the MRED+U program and throughout the university.”
Srebnick echoed the sentiments of her mother and Ball. “My father wanted people to know that ‘Tony was here.’ It’s etched on the tombstone. Tony’s still there and his spirit is the guardian of America’s great region. “It’s still very strong,” she said. “My motivation for donating to this position is that I don’t want his lessons to end with us. Miami is a city that my father loved dearly, and South Beach and Wynwood are two of my father’s greatest accomplishments. So we feel the University of Miami is the perfect place to continue that tradition.”
