The historic Freedom Tower has welcomed all of Miami. Now it needs our help
Every major city around the globe has a flagship building, a gathering place where all citizens unite around important causes. We are blessed in Miami to have the Freedom Tower at Miami Dade College (MDC), an homage to freedom of expression, a tribute to history and architecture, and a beacon of liberty and democracy.
Referred to as the “Ellis Island of the South,” our beloved Freedom Tower — designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 2008 — turns 100 in 2025, and with age comes the need for preservation. The tower requires critical repairs, upgrades — and our generosity — to ensure it remains the symbol of freedom for future generations.
Completed in 1925 as the home of the Miami News and Metropolis newspapers, the 289-foot tower opened a bold new chapter in our community’s history when it served as the Cuban Refugee Assistance Center from 1962-1974. Dubbed “el
Refugio” — the Refuge — it’s where hundreds of thousands of newly arrived Cubans received food, medical care and crucial help in establishing a new life. These arrivals would go on to transform Miami from a Southern resort town into an international metropolis powered by Latin American immigrants — a new kind of American city.
After spending the next several decades in disrepair, Cuban exile leader Jorge Mas Canosa rescued the tower with the intention of creating a museum recounting the Cuban-exile experience. Unfortunately, Mas Canosa died within months of purchasing the tower. His family sold the tower to developer Pedro Martin with the hopes that Martin could preserve it.
Martin was not able to obtain approval for the project and, seeking to honor Miami’s Cuban legacy, donated it to MDC in 2005 so it could preserve the tower.
When I joined MDC’s Board of Trustees, I made clear that one of my top priorities was preserving the tower and developing its role in the community even further. I am now asking everyone to help in this cause.
Through the Inspire America Foundation, we launched a television campaign in the Cuban community asking people to comment on their experience. The emotional response showed us that the Freedom Tower isn’t just a special building for Cuban Americans. It is beloved by the entire community.
Simply put, everyone has some connection to Freedom Tower, because it has made an immeasurable impact on our city and every segment of the community. The Freedom Tower contains more than 30,000 square feet of museum-quality exhibition space. Through events and programs, the tower reaches 120,000 MDC students and 400,000 residents who walk its hallowed halls annually.
On July 18, I, along with several other CubanAmerican leaders, rallied with an estimated 5,000 other Miamians in support of Cuba’s freedom during the island uprisings. The tower is also a rallying point for many other segments of the community, serving as a starting point for marches against Venezuela’s oppressive regime and as a memorial to victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti.
In recent years, MDC has identified several major improvements that must be made, some of which — on the building’s façade and internal structural components — have already begun. The cost is between $32 million and $35 million for these enhancements, including urgent structural repairs and life-safety improvements.
Some projects will enhance ADA amenities for more than 270,000 Miami-Dade residents with disabilities, improve water and sewer infrastructure, mitigate environmental deficiencies and install museum-quality climate control and security for the building.
Other projects will fulfill the dreams of Cuban exiles: re-engineering the exhibition spaces that honor the Cuban-American experience while also highlighting other diasporas that have made Miami their home and preserving the building’s historical components and existing uses.
Fortunately, on Nov. 15 Gov. DeSantis committed $25 million of the up to $35 million needed to restore Freedom Tower. While this will cover some of the costs, Miamians will need to come together and do everything we can to save this treasure to ensure the tower shines for its centennial — and for future generations to enjoy.