The "Real Housewives of Miami" star, Lisa Hochstein and her plastic surgeon husband, Leonard Hochstein, have finally got approval from the city board to renovate their historic Walter DeGarmo designed home in Miami. There had been strong opposition to the couple's plan to raze the 1925-built mansion.
The Miami Beach Design Review Board approved on March 5 Hochsteins' plans of building a 14,000 square feet residence, to replace the 87-year-old mansion, deeming the standing structure unsafe, reports Yahoo.
According to the Miami Herald, the board's reports said:
"The home's life expectancy was only about 40 years, and it should have toppled decades ago."
The Board asserted that though they believed that the building had 'historic value', it would be 'ethically inappropriate' to not allow the current owners to do as they wished with the property, reports NBC News.
Lisa was involved in a long dispute with a group of preservationists over plans to renovate the 1925 masterpiece on 42 Star Island Drive. The Hochsteins had had first announced plans of renovating the mansion, sometime in December 2012. Dr. Hochstein had purchased the property in a foreclosure sale. The couple had planned to replace the historic landmark with a modern two story building, which is slated to be designed by Kobi Karp.
However, the Miami Design Preservation League (MDPL), a minor preservation activist group, had locked horns with the Hochstein couple claiming that they were tearing down one of the most important landmarks of Miami.
The Miami Beach Design Review Board had called a meeting on Feb. 6, 2013, to discuss the building's preservation issue. The meeting was rather 'uneventful' and decision on the house's fate was postponed until March.
Lisa posted furious tweets over the issue then. However, she had also mentioned that if they won the approval, they would celebrate and would fill the home with a lot of children as well!
Check out the revised plans of the new mansion that the Hochstein couple will now be building here.
