The Mizner-designed clubhouse at the Gulf Stream Golf Club is 100 years old. Photo provided
By Steve Plunkett
The Gulf Stream Golf Club is working on a plan to demolish a portion of its 100-year-old Addison Mizner-designed clubhouse and build a new two-story addition primarily to enclose its second-story ocean terrace.
Architect Mark Marsh of Bridges, Marsh & Associates had nothing but praise for the historic Spanish-style structure, which opened to club members in January 1924, even before the town incorporated the following year.
“It’s a gracious building. I think it’s one of Mizner’s best works at least in Palm Beach, and we want to preserve those standards and values of the architecture,” he said as he presented his “very preliminary” plan to town commissioners on June 9 seeking a variance on the rear setback.
Gulf Stream requires a 25-foot setback for oceanfront buildings from the state’s 1979 Coastal Construction Control Line. The golf club’s plan would encroach that limit by 14 feet and be just 11 feet from that CCCL, but still 35 feet from the existing bulkhead sea wall.
Marsh said the club’s bulkhead or sea wall near the ocean was the town’s original reference point for setbacks and that in 2000 the town adopted the 1979 CCCL, even though
Florida had moved the line farther west in 1997.
In its application for the variance, the golf club said Mizner “did not have the benefit of knowing where the rear setback would be located in the future. If Mizner knew the location of this rear setback, he may have positioned the clubhouse differently to allow for future renovation and expansion.”
Resident Bob Ganger, who is an emeritus board member of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County and who watched Marsh’s presentation, said his own restored home on A1A has “lots of Mizner stuff” and applauded Marsh’s efforts.
“I think what they’re doing makes eminently good sense,” he said.
Said Marsh: “I think we were selected not only because of our knowledge of Gulf Stream but we do an awful lot of work in Palm Beach on Mizner buildings and restorations so it suits our wheelhouse very well.”
The Gulf Stream Golf Club, at 2401 N. Ocean Blvd., is private with membership by invitation only.
Marsh will return for full commission approval of his project after he fine-tunes the plan and the club’s members vote to proceed.
Construction is anticipated to take place in spring 2025.
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