The Freedom Tower ( es, Torre de la Libertad) is a building in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. It was designed by

Schultze and Weaver Schultze & Weaver was an architecture firm established in New York City in 1921. The partners were Leonard Schultze and S. Fullerton Weaver. History Leonard B. Schultze was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 5, 1877. He was educated at the Cit ...

and is currently used as a contemporary art museum and a central office to different disciplines in the arts associated with

Miami Dade College Miami Dade College (Miami Dade, MDC or Dade) is a public college in Miami, Florida. Founded in 1959, it has a total of eight campuses and twenty-one outreach centers throughout Miami-Dade County. It is the largest college in the Florida College ...

. It is located at 600

Biscayne Boulevard U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) in Florida runs along the state's east coast from Key West to its crossing of the St. Marys River (Florida/Georgia), St. Marys River into Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia north of Boulogne, Florida, Boulogne and south of ...

on Miami Dade College's

Wolfson Campus Miami Dade College (Wolfson Campus) is one of Miami Dade College’s eight campuses. The campus was opened in 1970, holding classes in storefronts in Downtown Miami, Florida. As the only comprehensive urban campus in the City of Miami, Wolfson Ca ...

. On September 10, 1979, Freedom Tower was added to the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. On October 6, 2008, it was designated a U.S.

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

for its role in hosting

Cubans Cubans ( es, Cubanos) are people born in Cuba and people with Cuban citizenship. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic, religious and national backgrounds. Racial and ethnic groups Census The population of Cuba wa ...

as they fled communist

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

for Florida following the 1959

Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in cou ...

. On April 18, 2012, the

AIA AIA or A.I.A. or Aia may refer to: Aia * Aia, a small town in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa, Spain * Aia, current Kutaisi, ancient capital of Colchis * Aia, another name for Aea (Malis), an ancient town in Greece * ''Aia'', the collected ed ...

's Florida Chapter placed the building on its list of ''Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places'' as the Freedom Tower / Formerly Miami News and Metropolis Building. Freedom Tower is served by the

Miami Metrorail Metrorail is the heavy rail rapid transit system of Miami and Miami-Dade County in the U.S. state of Florida. Metrorail is operated by Miami-Dade Transit (MDT), a departmental agency of Miami-Dade County. Opened in 1984, it is Florida's only ra ...

at the Government Center Station and the

Historic Overtown/Lyric Theatre station Historic Overtown / Lyric Theatre station is a station on the Metrorail rapid transit system in northwest Downtown, Miami, Florida. The station is located at the intersection of Northwest Sixth Street and First Avenue, just south of the neighbo ...

, as well as by the

Metromover Metromover is a free mass transit automated people mover train system operated by Miami-Dade Transit in Miami, Florida, United States. Metromover serves the Downtown Miami, Brickell, Park West and Arts & Entertainment District neighborhoods. M ...

at the

Freedom Tower station Freedom Tower is a Metromover station in Downtown, Miami, Florida, directly west of the Freedom Tower and the FTX Arena. The station is located at the intersection of Northeast Sixth Street and Second Avenue, opening to service May 26, 1994. T ...

on the Omni Loop.

History

Originally completed in 1925 as the headquarters and printing facility for the newspaper ''

The Miami News ''The Miami News'' was an evening newspaper in Miami, Florida. It was the media market competitor to the morning edition of the ''Miami Herald'' for most of the 20th century. The paper started publishing in May 1896 as a weekly called ''The Miami ...

'', the Freedom Tower is an example of a Mediterranean Revival styled structure with design elements borrowed from the

Giralda The Giralda ( es, La Giralda ) is the bell tower of Seville Cathedral in Seville, Spain. It was built as the minaret for the Great Mosque of Seville in al-Andalus, Moorish Spain, during the reign of the Almohad dynasty, with a Renaissance-style ...

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. Its

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

on a 255-foot (78 m) tower contained a decorative beacon. The

Federal government of the United States The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

used the facility in the 1960s to process and document refugees from the

and to provide medical and dental services for them. After the major era of refugees ended, in 1972, the federal government sold the building to private buyers in 1974. In 1979, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The New World Mural 1513, painted in 1988 by The Miami Artisans; Wade S. Foy, John Conroy
William Mark Coulthard
Phylis Shaw, Gerome Villa Bergsen and Ana Bikic. The mural is situated in the Grand Hall on the second floor; however, it sometimes has limited access for the public. The mural is a recreation of the ruined original from 1926, originally commissioned by the tower's developer

James Middleton Cox James Middleton Cox (March 31, 1870 July 15, 1957) was an American businessman and politician who served as the 46th and 48th governor of Ohio, and a two-term U.S. Representative from Ohio. As the Democratic nominee for President of the United S ...

in 1926 and again in 1987 by architect Richard Hiessenbottle RA. The center poem by

Edwin Markham Edwin Markham (born Charles Edward Anson Markham; April 23, 1852 – March 7, 1940) was an American poet. From 1923 to 1931 he was Poet Laureate of Oregon. Life Edwin Markham was born in Oregon City, Oregon, and was the youngest of 10 children; ...

poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...

for the Lincoln Memorial address. In 1997, the building was purchased for US$4.1 million by the family of the prominent Cuban-American businessman and anti-Communist

Jorge Mas Canosa Jorge Lincoln Mas Canosa (21 September 1939 – 24 November 1997) was a Cuban-American businessman who founded the Cuban American National Foundation and MasTec, a publicly traded company. Regarded within the United States as a powerful lobbyist o ...

. The Mas family then restored the tower to its original state and converted it into a memorial to the refugees who fled to the United States from Cuba. It housed a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

meeting hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the grea ...

, and the offices of the Cuban American National Foundation. Salsa legend

Celia Cruz Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso (21 October 1925 – 16 July 2003), known as Celia Cruz, was a naturalized Cuban-American singer and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century. Cruz rose to fame in Cuba during t ...

was memorialized at the Freedom Tower upon her death in 2003, with more than 200,000 turning out to show their respects. In 2005, Terra Group father and son, Pedro and David Martin, along with 600 Biscayne LLC and its members purchased the Freedom Tower from the Mas Family. This purchase eventually led to the Freedom Tower being donated to Miami Dade College, under the leadership of Miami-Dade College President, Dr. Eduardo Padron. As part of the donation agreement, the College was required to create a Cuban exile experience, and today it is used as a museum, cultural center, and an education center. The building has a heavy history and is reinventing itself once again as it lends itself to a new purpose. The building is gaining a significant amount of local recognition for its major exhibitions and growth as an institution of art, serving the community as a non-profit organization. The MDC Museum of Art + Design is on the second floor of the building and offers a wide range of exhibits, which are free and open to the public. The Freedom Tower is home to the Cuban American Museum. On April 13, 2015, Cuban-American Florida Senator

Marco Rubio Marco Antonio Rubio (born May 28, 1971) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the senior United States senator from Florida, a seat he has held since 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he served as Speaker of the Florida Hous ...

chose the Freedom Tower as the venue for the announcement of his presidential campaign, citing the significance of the location as a beacon representing freedom for Cuban-Americans. On September 17, 2015, His Majesty The King of Spain,

Felipe VI Felipe VI (;, * eu, Felipe VI.a, * ca, Felip VI, * gl, Filipe VI, . Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Grecia; born 30 January 1968) is King of Spain. He is the son of former King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía, and h ...

, received the Presidential Medal, the highest distinction from Miami-Dade College, from its President Eduardo Padron. On May 10, 2022, Gov.

Ron DeSantis Ronald Dion DeSantis (; born September 14, 1978) is an American politician serving as the 46th governor of Florida since January 2019. A member of the Republican Party, DeSantis represented Florida's 6th district in the U.S. House of Represe ...

announced that $25 million investment to preserve, refurbish and enhance the Freedom Tower.The proposal will be considered during the upcoming legislative session, and will be included in Governor DeSantis’legislative budget recommendation.

Gallery

File:Miami freedom tower for wikipedia by tom schaefer miamitom 0001.jpg, Miami Freedom Tower's cupola File:Miami Freedom Tower by Tom Schaefer 5.jpg, Westside – back side File:Miami freedom tower for wikipedia by tom schaefer miamitom 0004.JPG, From the Port Bridge looking west, notice Miami Arena in background before demolition, April 2007 File:Miami Freedom Tower by Tom Schaefer.jpg, From the Port Bridge looking west File:Miami Freedom Tower by Tom Schaefer 2.jpg, Closeup view, front in 2010 File:Freedom Tower, Miami, Southeast view 20160709 1.jpg, Front of building from Biscayne Blvd in 2016 File:Miami freedom tower night.jpg, Miami Freedom Tower at Night with Rich Purple Lighting, April 2, 2011 File:Freedom Tower, Miami, restoration-maintenance.JPG, Maintenance on the Freedom Tower in 2010/2011, viewed from the west File:Freedom Tower (Miami) restoration.JPG, Preservation/maintenance work being done on the tower, March 2011 File:Freedom Tower (Miami).jpg, By Juanoropeza.com/Cloudy and rainy night File:Freedom Tower Miami.jpg, The Freedom Tower in downtown Miami, Florida on November 26, 2016, the day after Fidel Castro had passed File:New World Mural 1513.jpg, "Freedom Tower Miami New World Mural 1513". The mural's center image presents Juan Ponce de León and the Tequesta Chief Freedom Tower Miami Mural 1988, painted by Miami Artisans in 1988. Wade S. Foy, John Conroy, W Mark Coulthard
Ana Bikic

References

External links

National Park Services' National Historic Landmark description

Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs
*
Dade County listings
*
Great Floridians of Miami

* Chronology of the tallest buildings in Florida {{authority control Office buildings completed in 1925 Mediterranean Revival architecture in Florida National Historic Landmarks in Florida National Register of Historic Places in Miami Skyscrapers in Miami Tourist attractions in Miami Museums in Miami Art museums and galleries in Florida University museums in Florida Miami Dade College 1925 establishments in Florida