The Americana Motor Inn, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (Broward Trust for Historic Preservation)

UPDATE: The Americana Motor Inn was demolished on Aug. 21, 2007.

A mid-century modern motel in Fort Lauderdale won't be demolished just yet.

Last week the Fort Lauderdale city commission turned down developer Ron Mastriani's plans for the 1964 Americana Motor Inn's eight-acre site. The June 5 vote stalled Mastriani's to raze the motel for a 12-story hotel complex called the Sails, homage to the Americana's seven-pointed roof.

"What we're overjoyed about is that it gives us time," says Diane Smart, president of the Broward Trust for Historic Preservation. She says Mastriani may donate the 4,000-square-foot structure to the group if it can raise money for its relocation.

"We have a choice between trying to raise $2 million and moving it to a really stunning site two miles away or trying to persuade the owner to work this structure into the new plan," Smart says. "We have lots of top-level architects urging that."

Architect Michael Graves wrote a letter to the city commission asking it to save the building, a Best Western that has been empty for about two years.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which considered adding the Americana Motor Inn to this year's list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places, has urged the city commission to consider preserve the building's lobby.

If the Americana can't be raised to the roof of the new complex or elsewhere on Mastriani's property, the Broward Trust envisions the Americana as a restaurant or yacht showroom in its new location in a city park.

"It's all one complete open space without partitions," Smart says, "so it lends itself to a dramatic use."

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