Kenneth Treister, a Miami architect known for his unique style that shaped the city’s aesthetic, died on Friday at 96 years old.
Treister’s works included the Mayfair House Hotel and Elizabeth Virrick Park, both in Coconut Grove, where he lived for 30 years in a house he designed, the Miami Herald reported. He was perhaps best known for Miami Beach’s Holocaust memorial sculpture, which took him five years to design and sculpt.
Treister considered the memorial the greatest challenge of his career. The sculpture, depicting a massive bronze hand reaching upward as anguished people climb up its side, garnered criticism upon its opening for being “grotesque” and distasteful, according to the memorial’s website.
But that discomfort made the memorial effective, its defenders said at the time. Capturing the tragedy in an art piece was “impossible … but I had to try,” Treister said on the memorial’s website.
“Ken transformed their stories and their pain into a powerful physical expression of remembrance — one that has moved millions of visitors from around the world,” representatives of the memorial wrote on Instagram shortly after his death.
Treister’s influences included Barcelona legend Antoni Gaudí and American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
His other notable works include Coconut Grove’s Office in the Groves, which was torn down to make way for the Four Seasons Private Residences. He also designed the Sophie & Nathan Gumenick Chapel at Temple Israel in Miami and a series of condominiums in the Bahamas.
Treister was an artist, sculptor and photographer. He attended the University of Miami before transferring to the University of Florida, where he graduated in 1953 with an architecture degree.
He designed the University of Florida’s Library of Judaica suite, and the university holds a collection of his drawings, photos and writing. He later moved to central Florida.
Treister loved life and people, his son, Charles Treister, told the newspaper. Charles followed in his father’s footsteps as a Miami architect and real estate broker. He is president of Miami-based Treister Design & Development and Beacon Realty Advisors.
—Alissa Gary
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