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THE ARCHITECT:

 

Hilario Candela (June 4, 1934 – January 18, 2022) was a Cuban-born American architect best known for his design of the Miami Marine Stadium on Virginia Key, Florida.

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After studying architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology, Hilario Candela returned to his home country where he briefly worked at the Cuban firm SACMAG (Saenz-Cancio-Martin-Alvarez-Gutierrez, architects) between 1958 and 1959. During this period, the firm was working with Spanish-born architect Félix Candela, a distant relative of Hilario, on the Bacardí warehouse in Mexico. This experience – coupled with previous summer internships in the office of Max Borges Jr., the architect of the famed Tropicana Club in Havana – ultimately influenced his approach to designing the Marine Stadium for which he is best known. After escaping Cuba in 1960, Candela planted roots in Miami, Florida where he soon acquired a job as an architect at Pancoast, Ferendino, Skeels and Burnham in 1961. It was at this firm that he, alongside Albert Ferendino, was tasked with designing a seven-thousand-seat grandstand for speedboat racing on Virginia Key.

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Candela remained at this firm until his retirement in 2006, although by then it had become known as Spillis, Candela DMJM.

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Named a fellow of The American Institute of Architecture, Candela's work has garnered awards and distinctions. His most notable works include the first two campuses of Miami Dade College (North and South), the University of Miami Mailman Center, the James L. Knight Center and adjoining Hyatt Regency Hotel, and the NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic Meteorological Laboratory. His last major project before retirement was Epiphany Catholic Church in South Miami, which was consecrated in 2002.

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Candela designed his most well-known structure, the Miami Marine Stadium, at the age of 28. Then known as the Commodore Ralph Middleton Monroe Marine Stadium, the building served as a stadium for speedboat racing, a concert venue, and, on occasion, a venue for Easter services. The building had fallen into disrepair by the early 90s. Following the devastation of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, the structure was condemned and closed to the public, though FEMA reports later showed it had not sustained any significant damage from the storm. It has since remained mostly abandoned, becoming a haven for Graffiti writers and skateboarders.

 

Candela later led efforts to preserve the building alongside the "Friends of the Marine Stadium," which he co-founded in 2008.

 

Through their efforts, the stadium became designated as an historic site by the City of Miami Historic and Environmental Preservation Board in October 2008. It has also been named one of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

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Candela was born on June 4, 1934, in Havana, Cuba, to Hilario R. Candela and Carmen Roig Candela. After studying architecture at Georgia Tech, he returned to Havana in 1958 but quickly fled to the United States in 1960 following the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro's rise to power. Two years later, Hilario met Eva Hernandez at a New Year's Eve party at the top of the Everglades Hotel. The two began to date shortly thereafter and were married in August 1963. Together, the couple had four children (Cecilia, Maurice, Mark, and Hilary) who provided them with fifteen grandchildren.

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Candela died from complications of COVID-19 in January 2022, at the age of 87.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilario_Candela

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History:

 

The Miami Marine Stadium is a marine stadium on Virginia Key, Miami, Florida, United States. The facility, completed in 1963 on land donated to the City of Miami from the Matheson family, is the first stadium purpose-built for powerboat racing in the United States. The stadium was abandoned in 1992 when officials declared it unsafe following Hurricane Andrew. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.

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William John Matheson (1856–1930) was an American industrialist. Born in Wisconsin, he was educated in Scotland where he learned about recent breakthroughs in the development of aniline dyes. Matheson became an early importer and distributor of such dyes from Germany.

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He founded the National Aniline and Chemical Company, which merged with four other companies to become the Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation. Matheson's estate on Long Island, Fort Hill, was well known. He also had an estate in Coconut Grove, Florida, and created a coconut plantation on the northern two-thirds of Key Biscayne, an area now occupied by Miami-Dade County's Crandon Park and the Village of Key Biscayne. William's older son, Hugh Merrill Matheson, was an early student at Ransom School and William donated a building to the school; the Matheson Infirmary.

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In 1930, William donated 80 acres to the county which was named Matheson Hammock Park. In 1940 his children donated 808 acres,the entire north end of Key Biscayne, to the county as Crandon Park and additional acreage on the other side of the bay to Matheson Hammock Park. The Miami Marine Stadium, formally named the Commodore Ralph Middleton Munroe Marine Stadium, was also built on land donated by the Matheson family.

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The 6,566-seat stadium was built in 1963 by the Millman Construction Company of Miami Beach.[2] The structure was built on land donated for water sports, and designed by architect Hilario Candela, then a 28-year-old recent immigrant from Cuba. It was dedicated as the Ralph Munroe Marine Stadium and cost $2 million (equivalent to $20,541,000 in 2024). The venue, located just south of Downtown Miami, was revered for its scenic views of Downtown and Miami Beach, hosting motorboat events, and events featuring the likes of Mitch Miller, Sammy Davis Jr., and U.S. President Richard Nixon (whose seasonal winter residence, dubbed "the Florida White House", was on nearby Key Biscayne).

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In 1979, Miami Rowing Club relocated to an empty lot between the stadium and MAST Academy (then known as Planet Ocean museum). The Miami International Regatta has been hosted by Miami Rowing Club since 1973, the basin provides a 1,500 meter 7 lane course for practice, training and racing.

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From its opening for nearly 30 years, the stadium was used for its intended water sports as well as concerts, sporting events such as boxing (which began in 1972), and even figured prominently in the 1967 Elvis Presley film Clambake, serving as the scene of Elvis' climactic speedboat race. In the wake of Hurricane Andrew, it was declared an unsafe building under Miami-Dade County building code on September 18, 1992. In 2004, $3 million was pledged in a municipal bonds by county residents for the restoration and renovation of the facilities.

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Design

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Poured entirely in concrete, the Miami Marine Stadium consists of a cantilevered folded plate roof supported by eight large slanted columns anchored in the ground through the grandstand. A huge horizontal beam tied them all together. A cut in the seating arrangement allowed spectators to appreciate the full height of the posts, which were pushed as far back as possible to permit unobstructed views over the watercourse. This concept was presented by one of the project's architects, Hilaro Candela to be original, however the idea was synonymous to several other well-established stadiums throughout Latin America and Europe, including the Florence Stadium designed by Pier Luigi Nervi, built 1932, the Baseball and Soccer stadiums in Cartagena, Colombia, by Guillermo Gonzalez Zuleta in 1947 and The University Stadium in Caracas designed by Carlos Raul Villanueva, built in 1950. The Miami Marine Stadium bears striking resemblance to the more elegant horse-racing Hipódromo de la Zarzuela in Madrid, Spain, designed by Carlos Arniches Moltó and Martín Domínguez in 1934–35.​

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Marine_Stadium

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