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Unlicensed Professionals Run Amok in South Florida
Unlicensed Professionals Run Amok in South Florida
6 November 2015
By David Arthur Walters
PRESS INDEPENDENT
Florida law is clear: building architects, landscape architects, and commercial interior
designers among other professionals must not advertise or practice their professions
without first registering with the State of Florida and obtaining either a permanent or a
temporary license.
The main reason for that law is also clear: to protect the public safety and welfare from
malpractice. Another reason is to protect Florida professionals from competitors who
may be just as well qualified by experience and education.
South Florida officials, nonetheless, could care less about the licensing regulations, at
least not until building permits are applied for, particularly if the unlicensed professionals
happen to be internationalist practitioners, so-called starchitects from out of state
retained by big developers that are often from out of state, seeking to colonize the
region for vested interests with surplus capital on their hands because only so much can
be wasted on pleasure before businesses stagnate. Especially popular in South Florida,
Ground Zero for the last great economic crisis, are cheap glass boxes in air castles
erected and sold at exorbitant prices for a fast buck.
The developer and his famous architects and interior designer will proceed to lobby
officials and local agencies for the necessary approvals of their plans including the
designs. They will hire a licensed Florida professional to put up his license number on
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Yabu Pushelberg and Enrique Norten advertising One Ocean South Beach construction project
Highly respected international interior design firm Yabu Pushelberg with studios in
Toronto and New York advertises itself as such in Florida and has helped design
numerous projects for the likes of Jorge Perez Related Companies without the required
license. The Florida Board of Architecture and Interior Design announced on 28 July
2015 that it had settled for a fine of $5,000 plus costs against the firm and its designers
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Renzo Piano, one of the most famous architects in the world, has designed a tower for
erection at 8701 Collins Avenue on Miami Beach without a Florida license. The project
is hailed as the advent of the architect into the Florida market. Likewise an investigator
for the Florida Board of Architecture and Interior Design is looking into the matter to see
if probable cause may be found to prosecute the firm.
The City of Miami Beach would have a renowned unlicensed in Florida landscape
architect with several marvelous local projects under its belt, West 8, with offices in
Rotterdam and New York, design the landscape for the 8701 Collins Avenue project.
Incidentally, 8701 Collins Avenue LLC donated $10,000 to the political action committee
created to celebrate Mayor Philip Levines accomplishments during his campaign for
reelection, for which he laid out over $800,000 from his own pocket for the $10,000 seat
on the commission, where he enjoys an allegedly purchased majority hence is a de
facto strong mayor in a city with a weak mayor charter. A clamor was raised over the
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Now the Board of Architecture and Interior Design retained a private law firm, Smith
Thompson Shaw Minacci & Colon P.A., led by Prosecuting Attorney David Minacci, to
conduct its investigations and prosecute misconduct. That businesslike approach to
handling cases appears to be quite effective in the long run. Staff is more than willing to
follow up on press reports of probable unlicensed activity.
Say that I am New York developer who owns Florida property. I have my New York
architect design a property for it. We go down to Florida and lobby for any necessary
approvals by planning board, land development board, preservation board etc. Then my
architect draws final plans for building permits, environmental permits, etc. I hire Florida
architects to seal and sign them. They do some gopher work during construction as my
New York architect's liaison. Has my New York architect, who is the de facto or actual
architect, violated Florida law? Probably, but that depends on who hired whom and who
paid whom and whatever related documentation reveals, such as architectural plans.
The Minacci law firm will eventually look into the unlicensed conduct of Renzo Piano.
Unlicensed landscape architecture, however, is not under the Board of Architecture and
Interior Designs jurisdiction. That discipline has its own self-regulating industry board,
the Board of Landscape Architecture, under the theory that building architecture and
landscape architecture require different types of education and experience. The state
legislature found that:
The regulation of landscape architecture is necessary to assure competent landscape
planning and design of public and private environments, prevention of contamination of
water supplies, barrier-free public and private spaces, conservation of natural resources
through proper land and water management practices, prevention of erosion, energy
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TO Raul Aguila re Aiding and Abetting Unlicensed Architecture: Dear Mr. Aguila: I did
not receive a response from you to the below inquiry as to James Corner's practice of
landscape architecture for the City of Miami Beach without obtaining a Florida license,
which may have easily been had by endorsement. Now it appears that a landscape
architecture firm doing business as West 8 does not have a Florida license yet is
involved in the city's convention center project. It is my information that the DBPR is
looking into the James Corner licensing issue. As for West 8, the DBPR has no record
of a license, and may or may not look into the matter further without a formal complaint
being lodged. An interior design company that has done considerable work South of
Fifth, Yabu Pushelberg, is being looked into by (a private law firm for) the DBPR.
Enrique Norten, the architect of 321 Ocean Enrique Norten and other major projects in
the region is also being looked into. May I suppose from your silence on the James
Corner inquiry that you have determined that no Florida licenses are required by such a
contractor, or that it is none of the city's business, and that for officials to knowingly
continue to do business with unlicensed architects is not aiding and abetting violations
of civil (fines) and criminal (misdemeanor) law? David Arthur Walters MIAMI MIRROR
Mr. Aguila, Attached are the first 75 pages of the city's contract with James Corner's
company for the renovation of Lincoln Road. I often check Building Department permits
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Clearly, not only could City of Miami Beach, City of Miami, and and Miami-Dade County
officials care less that unlicensed building architects, landscape architects, and
commercial interior designers are running amok in their jurisdictions, but DBPR officials
could also care less unless someone lodges a complaint, or prosecutions are handled
by a private law firm.
That attitude extends to other trades as well, and is by no means unique to Florida, but
is endemic wherever regulatory agencies have a complaint-driven system to obtain
compliance from violators partnered with to help them comply. That system of
random enforcement is widely recognized as the worst kind of enforcement that a
jurisdiction could have. It encourages non-compliance of violators, disparate treatment
of violators, and irrational behavior by compliance officers not to mention moral and
criminal corruption.
Compliance with legal codes only occurs when the cost of disobedience exceeds the
benefits of obedience.
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