The name conjures up images of luxury, glitz and extravagance — everything the Broward County school district should not be.
“Crystal Palace” has been the unofficial name for the district’s headquarters for as long as anyone can remember (in fact, for three decades). It’s also the name of a haven for high rollers — a casino and resort hotel in the Bahamas — which is more like it.
The 14-story blue-glass building in Fort Lauderdale began its life as a Capital Bank headquarters. The school board, desperate to leave a depressing cluster of ramshackle barracks and trailers in Sailboat Bend, bought it for $23 million as a hollowed-out shell in the 1980s, then invested another $9 million into extensive renovations.
The building sustained major damage during Hurricane Wilma in October 2005, but it’s still the home of hundreds of school district employees and the site of many school board decisions. Once again, some school board members think it’s time the education system were located someplace else.