At the end of this article is a photo essay of Boca’s downtown buildings. The essay intersperses buildings that have the Mizner-esq style of Ordinance 4035 (passed by referendum) and buildings with the knee capping “IDG – Interim Design Guidelines” (passed by a tone deaf City Council of yesteryear). Sound familiar? It should.
Notably, in arguing the case to de-beautify Boca Raton with the IDG, then Boca Council Member Mike Mullaugh famously told the Sun Sentinel that he could not visualize the IDG guidelines so “Let’s see what it looks like.” #electionsmatter
It was the perfidious moment that started a 10 year run on boxy buildings and the ensuing erasure of Boca Raton’s unique and historic Mizner brand; a “Cracker Barrel-ization” so to speak, of a well known, well loved and respected brand in pursuit of an ulterior agenda. Local resident and crusty commentator at the time, Jack McWalter, coined the term “Boxes with Windows” to describe the IDG buildings.
And it is with great irony that now, 10 years later, the latest move to eradicate Boca’s Mizner brand is to facilitate shiny mirrored buildings; because it’s not enough to suffer the foul IDG designs once. With mirror-faced siblings, they will now be repeated, magnified and reflected a second, third or fourth time should you miss them at first. SMH.
BocaBeautiful.org and the passing of John Gore
As long time Boca residents mourn the 10 year anniversary of City Hall’s end run around residents to pursue the “Ft Lauderdale-ization” of Boca Raton (you’ll never guess what current council member grew up there), 2025 also brought the loss of one of Boca’s most vociferous warriors who fought to defend Boca’s unique and beloved beauty. John Gore, author of the funniest book on cancer “Stage Fright: 15 Rules for Coping with Cancer” and a die hard warrior against the de-beautification of Boca, passed away May 20 2025.
Gore was the founder of the BocaBeautiful.org blog and movement – a pioneer in the use of the blog format to give voice to resident concerns and quality of life issues under siege by city hall.
When BocaBeautiful shut down in 2019, John, a gifted and persuasive writer, continued to fight the fight for Boca Raton here, on the pages of his blog’s progenitor: BocaFirst. Two years ago, before he put his energies into what would be the fight for his life, I asked him to recap the fight for Boca Raton. Current day warriors in the Save Boca movement, should take a read of John’s final message: “A Brief History of the Battle for Downtown Boca“. You stand on his shoulders.
So how’s that IDG looking these days?
Click the image below to browse our pictorial essay on the de-beautified Boca. A good eye will see the difference between those buildings that used Addison Mizner’s design language (in both low-rise and hi-rise structures) compared to the ones that failed to do so.
FOR MORE DETAIL ON THE IDG:
