Historic Versailles Hotel: board approves detailed plan for three‑level basement and strict monitoring conditions

The Historic Preservation Board on May approved a certificate of appropriateness allowing the excavation and construction of a three‑level basement beneath portions of the contributing Versailles Hotel at 3425 Collins Avenue, contingent on new monitoring and reporting requirements meant to reduce risk to the historic fabric.

Board members approved the plan after a detailed presentation from the applicant’s engineering team showing sequencing, soil‑improvement and shoring measures designed to preserve the existing structure while construction proceeds beneath it.

The board’s vote came after the applicant’s engineers described a staged approach in which temporary shoring towers and steel platforms would support the building while auger‑cast and jet‑grouted piles and pile caps are installed, columns are jacketed and new internal slabs are built. “We are going to improve the soils around the building,” said shoring engineer Youssef Hashim, describing a mix of deep‑soil mixing and jet grouting to create hard, load‑bearing soil blocks around and beneath the…