The ADSPB has identified the largest Art Deco building, in Florida
located in Palm Beach County!

The A.G. Holley Sanatorium is on Lantana Road, just east of I-95, set back from the road. The building features glass block, flat roof, eyebrows, fluted ribbed columns, groups of threes, banding and many other interior Streamline Moderne elements found in South Florida Art Deco architecture.

Art Deco debate: Priceless building or pink eyesore?

By Josh Hafenbrack
Staff Writer - Sun-Sentinel

LANTANA · In the minds of many, A.G. Holley State Hospital is an oversized pink eyesore. Contractors charged with eventually razing the building have taken to calling it the "Pink Elephant."

But to the Art Deco Society of the Palm Beaches, it's a priceless piece of architectural history.

A.G. Holley, at four stories and 162,000 square feet, is the largest Art Deco building in Palm Beach County and among the biggest in Florida, said Sharon Koskoff, who founded the society.

Built in 1950, A.G. Holley came at the end of America's Art Deco era. In South Florida, the style is famously on display at Miami's trendy South Beach, where rows of hotels form the Art Deco District.

While innocuous A.G. Holley doesn't scream Art Deco, Koskoff said the Lantana hospital is a classic. It has Art Deco's terrazzo floors, block-shaped glass windows, hard-edged geometrical design, rounded corners and what's known as eyebrows -- shelves built atop windows.

"I see beauty," Koskoff said. "I see a treasure gem to be proud of. You can tear it down, but you'll be missing something. Either you're a town that cares about historic architecture, or you're not."

Dennis Wilhelm, co-author of Rediscovering Art Deco U.S.A., said in sheer size, A.G. Holley compares with Florida's biggest Art Deco buildings: the 17-story Alfred I. DuPont skyscraper in Miami and Bok Tower in Lake Wales.

"I'd say [A.G. Holley ] is certainly one of the biggest Art Deco buildings in the state," said Wilhelm.

Another expert, however, said A.G. Holley might not fit the style in the traditional sense. Laura Cerwinske, author of Tropical Deco: The Architecture and Design of Old Miami Beach, said the structure is in line with the Streamline Moderne period, which is more closely associated with modern design than Art Deco.

By contrast, Koskoff takes a more liberal view of what constitutes Art Deco. She said A.G. Holley fits the description snugly, and that the plan to fell it will cost Palm Beach County a large piece of its Art Deco history.

The hospital merely needs a paint job, argued Koskoff.

But preserving the hospital is a long shot. The 145-acre campus, which now houses the nation's last tuberculosis hospital, is being turned into the state-of-the-art, $150 million Florida Institute for Public Health.

The committee overseeing that transformation, which met Friday, appears unimpressed by the hospital's Art Deco origins.

"I do not see [the building as] Art Deco at its finest," said Lantana Town Manager Mike Bornstein. "I'm not sure if it was neo-classical or post-deconstruction or whatever -- I don't see that that should have a great bearing on whether the building should be saved or not."

Keeping the building would come with a hefty price tag, said Tim Scarbrough of Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., the contractor. A.G. Holley is laced with asbestos, he said, and the old design isn't conducive to a modern health facility.

The Florida Department of Health is committed to tearing down the building, said Deputy Director Bonnie Sorensen.

Throughout the years, A.G. Holley has been poorly maintained by the state. The grounds are barren and unkempt, the building's paint is faded and peeling, and the facility is ringed by a chain-link fence.

"I see it as a 55-year-old building that needs to be totally renovated or removed," said Lantana Mayor Dave Stewart. "I don't see any historic value."

But Koskoff says losing the building would be a blow to Palm Beach County's rich Art Deco tradition.

Delray Beach's nautical-style Boyd Building, the Lake Worth Playhouse and the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art are all Art Deco -- as are countless smaller buildings dotted throughout the county, she said.

Art Deco came to the United States from France in the 1920s. Instead of the flowery designs of 19th Century Art Noveau, the angular, leaner style of Art Deco employed "America's industrial sensibility," Cerwinske said. But with real estate at a premium in South Florida, she said, Art Deco is an endangered species. "Unless it's on the historic register, chances are developers are going to raze it," she said.

Josh Hafenbrack can be reached at jhafenbrack@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6522.