The Birch House, designed by architect Charles Foster McKirahan, c. 1959, Fort Lauderdale, FL. Features an expressive cantilevered entrance and stained glass accents in exterior walls.
McKirahan designed properties include: Coral Cove, Bay Club, Sunrise Bay Club, Maybury Mansions, Coral Ridge Towers (North and East), Royal AdmiralCondominium, and Ocean Manors Hotel, as well as the Coral Ridge Country Club and Yacht Club, Point of America Condominium, Everglades House, Sky Harbour East, Lago Mar Apartments, Marina Motor Inn, Ireland’s Inn, the original Yankee Trader Hotel, Tower, Birch House, Sea Chateau Motel, and Manhattan Tower. In DadeCounty his work included the Castaways Hotel (also with a Far Eastern theme), the Seaquarium dome, Point View Co-op, Island House on Key Biscayne. His contribution to the proposed historic district is the original Seacoast Towers (now the Alexander), designed in 1962 for Alexander Muss.
In the Bahamas, McKirahan designed the Nassau Beach Lodge, Nassau Yacht Harbour Marina Hotel, Cotton Bay Club Beach House, and residences for actor Raymond Burr and artist Alexander Calder. He is also known to have worked in Ecuador, Honduras, Dominican Republic, and Brazil. Sadly, this prolific and gifted architect was killed in an auto accident in West Palm Beach in 1964, at age 44.
