A stately Miami tower, once a beacon of hope for more than a half-million Cuban refugees, inched toward the verge of collapse before its rescue by an immigrant family and team of restoration experts.

Hispanic businessman and community leader Jorge Mas Canosa and his family purchased the Freedom Tower, in 1997, with plans to restore it as a symbol of liberty, a museum and the headquarters for the nonprofit organization he founded to promote democracy in his native land - the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF). Mas Canosa died shortly after buying the building. His widow, Irma Mas Santos, and sons Jorge, Juan and Jose Mas Santos decided to follow though with his plans, established the Freedom Tower Foundation and took out loans to fund the $12 million purchase and restoration. They have tackled unexpected difficulties while rebuilding the crumbling, 1925 structure.

"In South Florida architecture was never meant for it to last more than 25 years," said Joe Garcia, CANF executive director. "The building today is stronger then when it was first built."

Freedom Tower History

Constructed as headquarters for the Miami Daily News, the 17-story tower served as a welcoming light for arriving boaters and later as a U.S. government resettlement center from 1962 until 1974. The floors at the base of the Mediterranean Revival building contain about 15,000 sq. ft. each. But the upper floors are less than 1,500 sq. ft. each, decreasing its efficiency as an office building.

After the processing center closed, except for a brief restoration and occupancy by a Saudi concern, the tower stood empty. Squatters and vandals wrecked much of the inside, while Miami's moist, salty air destroyed the early concrete, which cracked and delaminated, allowing moisture to rust the exposed reinforced steel.

"One of the structural companies said this building can't be saved," recalled Garcia, explaining the company recommended knocking it down and rebuilding. "But we didn't do that. We saved it. This is the Ellis Island of the South."

Due to the tower's prime downtown location, its condition and its unusual design, many feared it would be torn down and replaced by a modern structure. The Dade Heritage Trust named the tower to its 2000-2001 list of most endangered historic sites, due to concerns that renovation had not yet started. Work began in March 2000.

Good Feelings Lead to Teamwork

Garcia, like many involved in the project, has fond memories of the tower. Although born in the United States, he took his grandparents there for medical care and other things. People received food, temporary shelter or warm clothing at the building.

"Everybody in this community has a soft spot for the tower," said Garcia, who explained that the Cuban exile experience differed from that of early immigrants. "Because there was such a strong connection with a struggle for freedom in America ... these people were received with open arms."

The exiles expected to stay only a short while before returning to their island nation. For many, the brief escape has lasted more than 40 years.

"This building is going to become a monument to our gratitude and appreciation of the welcome that this country has given to us," said Felix Jorge Cordoves, president and project manager of Freedom Tower Construction Inc., Miami, the firm overseeing the project under the direction of Jose Puig Sr., president of JGP Engineering Group, Miami. Puig, a CANF director, volunteered to manage the project, assumed general contractor duties and donated the professional services of his firm, which handled MEP engineering.

"I believe in the project and the cause," Puig said. "It's a community project. This community has been good to me, and I wanted to give something back."

Architect Raul Rodriguez, a principle with Rodriguez & Quiroga Architects Chartered, Miami, aimed to capture the building's reflection of society while planning the restoration and creating usable space in the tower.

"Miamians relate to the building on many levels," he said, adding that while everyone likes it, some associate it with the newspaper, others the exile experience, and some its form in the skyline.

Feelings of good will led to unusual cooperation between the designers and the contractors.

"There was progressive development of the plans as problems became uncovered," Rodriguez said. "It's very interesting and happy. One of the reasons is the owner had a full commitment to the conservation of the building in perpetuity."

Tackling the Preservation

JAG Restoration & Caulking Inc., Miami, performed exterior refurbishing, including recasting facades and balcony balusters, repairing stonework, returning the building to its original color, and repairing the cupola at the very top of the tower. The cupola's original design included metal support posts surrounded by a copper sleeve. The posts deteriorated leaving the decorative copper as the only support.

"The main structure was so corroded that you could see the holes at the bottom," Cordoves said.

The cupola has been restored, and the tower's light will once again shine on Miami Bay.

The building has been brought up to modern codes and air-conditioned. A smoke evacuation system was installed and the staircase pressurized to ensure a safe escape in case of fire. The 10th floor has been converted to mechanical space for the tower's smoke-evacuation fans, air-handler units, and electrical and mechanical systems.

Project engineers Donnell, Duquesne and Albaisa of Miami chose Pompano Beach's Structural Preservation Systems, Inc., a subsidiary of Baltimore-based Structural Group, to manage form-and-pump concrete repairs. Structural Preservation Systems also had to increase the bearing capacity to accommodate the planned library and museum. The company received the International Concrete Repair Institute's Award of Excellence for historic projects for its $3.4 million work on the tower.

"They did some very outstanding work," Cordoves said. "In order to change the bearing capacity without changing the dimensions, we had to go to high-quality materials and special reinforcement including carbon fibers."

The amount of structural damage remained hidden until work began. Structural Preservation Systems estimates the original scope of its work increased by 800 percent. Compressive strength testing showed the original concrete mix was less than 3,000 psi, approximately half of what is required. Northeast corners of the first two floors were almost to the point of collapse.

"Every single column had to be redone," Garcia said. "Every floor, from the first to the 4th floor, had to be removed and the concrete reset."

Structural Preservation Systems completed 3,000 cu. ft. of full-depth and 26,000 cu. ft. of partial-depth slab repairs. To minimize the risk to the structural integrity during overhead repairs, crews worked in a phased checkerboard pattern, completing one section before starting on the next.

"One of the most unique things about this job ... was the shoring that was involved," said Project Manager Rob Sommer. "We used steel grillage and pinned that around the column."

Hydrodemolition techniques, with 35,000 lbs. of water pressure, allowed quick removal of delaminated and spalled concrete in the overhead soffits on the ground floor.

"It's almost like a pressure washer," Sommer said. "The water blows the concrete off the rebar."

Crews hand chipped off the rest of the overhead concrete using 15-lb. pneumatic jackhammers.

Abrasive blast cleaning of the steel eliminated rust and opened the pore structure. In some places, half the steel needed replacement. The company pumped in 4 in. of concrete, rather than the original three, using a 6,000-psi pea rock pump mix with a corrosion inhibitor. Crews removed concrete surrounding I-beams on the upper floors with a sand blaster and coated the beams with a corrosion inhibitor.

Due to access restrictions and no elevators, Structural Preservation Systems' crews hand carried shoring and other materials upstairs. Concrete was pumped through windows and the stairwell from ground level, and debris removed through interior chutes built through the floors.

Tower Plans

More than half of Miami-Dade County's population is Hispanic, yet the area has lacked a place for people to learn about the Cuban exile experience. The Freedom Tower will soon provide that.

"We want the interior of the museum to reflect the values of that society, which picked itself up and moved," said Rodriguez. "It's been one of the most successful immigrations in the history of the United States."

The former newspaper circulation and ads sales department in the mezzanine will become a museum and art gallery. An interactive exhibit will re-create crossing the strait in a raft. The former composing room on the second floor will become a multipurpose lecture hall. Balconies off this level were strengthened to allow for gatherings. Cubans will be able to trace their roots in the library and research center on the third floor, which was originally radio broadcast studios.

"The building is going to be used to talk about the experience that brought Cuban-Americans here, but also to glory in the American experience," Garcia said.

Recognizing the importance of the building's entire history, a mural from the newspaper era has been preserved, and a room willbe dedicated to the newspaperman who built the structure, as well as one to Mas Canosa.

"Jorge Mas Canosa ... walked up to the 14th floor, and he saw the space he wanted to have ... for his offices. You can look all around. He said, 'From here I have my view to Cuba,'" Cordoves said.

That space will be maintained as a special tribute to Mas Canosa.

Renovation should be complete for a May 20, 2002, opening, the centennial anniversary of Cuba's independence as a republic. With the library and exhibits, the Freedom Tower has become a $20 million project. Garcia plans to raise an additional $20 million endowment to support the tower in the future.

"What we are hoping for the tower is to make sure it lasts forever as a testament to America," Garcia said. "Its fundament is the Cuban experience, but it is also a recognition of what brought us here."