CLOG: Miami

One of our intrepid correspondent's essay got picked-up by the influential architectural publication CLOG. Each quarterly issue "explores, from multiple viewpoints and various means, a single subject particularly relevant to architecture now." D.C. Copeland's A Cluster of Brown Dwarfs takes the less fawning and more critical stance in the issue that, although the region has a host of "starchitect's" buildings here, none of their completed projects or those in the foreseeable future are iconic: 

"Instead of landmark buildings— the supernovas in the SoFla starchitect constellation— palm trees, bikinis, beaches, and sweat stains will become the sole identifiers for the region. Of course, no city needs a landmark building but it's nice to have one, especially if the burg has pretensions of greatness. If SoFla is to be taken seriously as the “Gateway of the Americas,” it should demand more from the starchitects circling the current building boom. Maybe Gehry or SOM will come to the rescue when their designs for the arts building and train station are revealed. Until then, of the brown dwarfs, a possible contender as an example of “destination architecture” is Hadid’s parking garage since it reflects her futuristic, other-worldly style. While it stands out from the crowd, it’s only a parking garage— unless, of course, as a resident in the cluster, you’re proud to be living in a region famous for its parking garages."

That said, Miami and Miami Beach should be thankful that such a well-respected publication sought to highlight the region for this issue. It's a visual tour de force and includes essays by such luminaries in the field as architect Andrés Duany, a founder of the New Urbanism  movement and the guiding hand behind the Miami21 zoning code whose essay is titled "Miami is the Best City of its Age;" Chad Oppenheim (whose work we love); Terrence Riley (an architect and once director of the old Miami Art Musuem who we took to task for choosing Herzog & de Meuron as architects for the new Miami Art Museum); and a host of other academics and practitioners of the art and science of the profession.  CLOG: Miami is a unique touchstone to the region's architectural past, present, and future and is worth a buy for anyone interested in our man-made skyline and the power and politics of architecture.

The Architecture God Has Spoken: Publix on the Bay Makes My Chosen Building List!

It's a freaking supermarket for crying out loud! Can you imagine? Reminds me of the work of the architects from the planet with all of those flying saucers. I absolutely love it and wonder why I don't see more of this kind of stuff on Earth. Carlos Zapata is the architect. Works out of New York City. Owned by Publix Super Markets, Publix on the Bay opened in 1998 and is located in South Miami Beach at 20th Street and West Ave. This freestanding 47,000 square foot store has two levels of parking (220 spaces) on top of the building. It has a state-of-the-art "people mover" to take customers and their loaded baskets on a sloping treadmill from the ground level to the parking levels. The store also has an elevator for access to the parking areas. The overall building appearance, particularly the unusual facade, has made the store the architectural landmark of South Florida.

And it's a freaking supermarket for cying out loud!

I love it. If I had to shop, I'd do it here everyday. And ol' Carlos, if he keeps this up, he's got a seat right next to Me in Heaven. Well, actually next to my Son and Gehry-- if he rethinks that "accident" on Lincoln Road.

The Architecture God Has Spoken: Miami's New Herzog & De Meuron Art Museum Looks Like An Auto Mall!

The Godless Chinese commies get a winning landmark design from Herzog & de Meuron for their Olympic stadium. What does my favorite city get from this firm for its new art museum? A freaking auto mall! Where's the awe inspiring architecture? Back in Beijing. Hell, those hanging vines will be ripped asunder with the first thunderstorm! Years from now, people will look back at this time and wonder what the hell was going on with those living there back then? What the hell were they thinking? Who sold them on this lousy excuse for a building? For answers to that and other questions, please go here.

UpDate (9/19/08): Here's an example of what you could have had instead of what you have now: nothing but another auto mall on a planet full of mundane buildings when you could have had something grand and visionary. It's the Gehry designed Guggenheim for Abu Dhabi. Click the image to make it larger.

Herzog & de Meuron Miami Art Museum design unveiled

We really, really want to like the proposed new Miami Art Museum design from Herzog and de Meuron but...

Our hopes have fallen as flat as the new building's roof. Unlike Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, it doesn't jump out and grab our soul.

And, it makes us anxious. It looks less than hurricane proof-- despite reassurance from a Herzog/de Meuron spokesperson that the post and beam design will be "extra stiff" (perhaps Viagra should be hit up for naming rights. Seriously). We suspect the first major hurricane to hit Miami will make MAM Gone with the Wind. The hanging vines are cool, but again we believe they will be scattered like soggy flotsam after the first summer thunderstorm. Perhaps the architects from Basel should have spent time in a hurricane before setting pencil to paper.

Not to sound completely negative, we do like the "floating" gallery space and the open-air feeling of the design-- which will come in handy with the first tidal surge. It reminds us of Gehry's design for an extension of the New York Guggenheim that was nixed after its projected costs approached a billion dollars. His titanium "clouds" floated over the water.

We also like how the Basel Boys' design beckons everyone unlike the current museum which is cut off from the public by imposing walls.

But then we read that the underground parking garage is "exposed." The last thing I want to see is a car at the museum, to be reminded of the rising cost of gas and a world just outside the door that is reeling and may soon collapse from all kinds of economic horrors.

In any event, this is a working model as Terence Riley, director of the museum, takes pains to point out more than once in today's Miami Herald article and on the video that can be found here. Changes undoubtedly will occur. Hopefully.

UpDate (9/19/08): Here's an example of what we could have had had there not been a convocation of sycophants living and working in Miami. It's the Gehry designed Guggenheim for Abu Dhabi. Click the image to make it larger.

UpDate (11/2/08): Or we could have had something like this, Zaha Hadid's 7,500s.f. Chanel Pavilion, a traveling homage to the company's famous purse "2.55." It is currently on display in New York City's Central Park until November 9th before its 700 pieces are dismantled and reassembled in London. Too bad Miami isn't worthy enough to make the cut. There couldn't be a more fitting city for it during Art Basel (December 4-7th).

Or place: Bicentennial Park, on the same plot of land reserved for the second rate Herzog & de Meuron monument to stunted dreams. It would look great sitting along the water's edge in Bicentennial Park and would speak volumes of what we could have had instead of what we will have, a flat roofed auto mall that instead of lifting our spirits and reminding us of our potential as humans, squashes all hope with uninspiring design. Perhaps that building, following the skyrocketing rate of suicides attributed to its opening, will be required by law to post this sign in the county's three official languages of English, Spanish, and Creole to the unsuspecting: Abandon All Hope to Those Entering Here.

MVB suggests we buy the Chanel Pavilion on clearance sale after it has its run and make it our new art museum. The Herzog & de Meuron can be built where it rightly should go: along the Palmetto Expressway with all the other car dealerships. I'm sure Maroone AutoWorld will be able to use it for another one of its brands. And, although the Chanel Pavilion may seem small, it is more than enough space for Miami's public art collection which, if we are not mistaken, contains a handful of paintings and a couple of sculptures. To see a slide show of the Chanel Pavilion in NYC, click here. To see the official site for the traveling exhibit, click here. It includes a slide show about the building's design (Exhibition/Statement) narrated by Ms. Hadid.

The Architecture God Has Spoken: Arquitectonica's Atlantis Made It Okay To Color Outside of the Box

A recent prayer that was sent up to me by a true believer asked how I came to favor Miami. Well, up until 1982 I was pretty much bored and disappointed with earth's architects until I started watching them erect Atlantis, a condominium designed by a basically unknown architectural firm called Arquitectonica headquartered in Miami. I kept waiting for them to fill in the hole but they never did. Instead, they painted the walls of the opening bright yellow, hung a giant red corkscrew staircase, dropped in a Jacuzzi, and jammed a palm tree into that space. I sat up and took notice. What exactly was going on here? I asked myself. Nothing in the architectural world could get me excited anymore until Atlantis hit the scene. It brought me out of a deep dark funk which began with the rise of the "International Style." I soon realized Arquitectonica was leading a whole slew of architects into what I believe is an architecture of the future that embraces fun and daring-do instead of restraint and "less is more"-- although less is more is the best advice for uninspired hacks who call themselves architects. I consider Atlantis to be the benchmark for this transition into what some have labeled "tropical modernism," a term I find insufficient to cover this broad new global approach to architecture. I prefer a more ethnocentric term that reminds everyone where it all began: Miami Modern Squared, or MiMo², to avoid confusing it with MiMo, the fun, postwar architecture made famous my Morris Lapidus' Miami Beach hotels.

Some facts on the building that started it all:

• 20-stories, 96 condo units, 6 apartments per floor
• 5-story "sky court"
• 300' long by 37' wide (the length of each side of the building's "hole")
• It appeared in the opening credits of the "Miami Vice" TV series
• A rival developer, concerned that Atlantis was taking all the attention away from his new building next door, hired famed kinetic artist Yaacov Agam to make the building look like one of his 3D paintings. Thousands of gallons of paint later, the Villa Regina still can't save itself from the powerful aesthetics of Atlantis although it does allow a select few to say dismissively, "You may own an Agam, but I live in one."
• Now, after 25-years, Atlantis has decided to light up its way cool red roof-top pyramid. That red glowing pyramid is a welcome addition to Miami's ever changing night time skyline.

Since the emergence of Arquitectonica, I've been making Miami my permanent home because of its envelope pushing architectural firms and the buildings they're designing for the city they live in. Their cutting-edge buildings have influenced the way developers here think, thus raising the aesthetic criteria in their choices when bringing in equally exciting architects from outside of Miami. In that sense, Miami has become an incubator for innovation and brilliance in architecture because, once the bar has been raised this high, no developer is going to take a chance on architects who can't bring attention to his or her multi-million dollar investment. Now, if only your local politicians and planning departments would become that consistently demanding when plans for a new building come before them, perhaps someday Miami and the Beaches will become known not just as the "sun and fun capitals of the world," but also as the "Architectural Capitals of the World."

The Architecture God Has Spoken: How Dare You Usurp my Domain!

I see a God can't even get out of town on Memorial Day for a little RR without the MVB staff usurping its territory. Your previous post on the proposed 70-story building for downtown Miami was a pretty accurate description of the building but you caved with that silly "Tip o' The Kangol" BS. Now let me tell it like it is: One Bayfront Plaza is not worthy. In fact it suffers from MPD-- Multiple Personality Disorder. It's a building that can't make up its mind what it is. It looks like it was designed by a committee. And just because it's tall doesn't make it worthy. You're too easy, desperate for any building longer than my index finger. How pathetic.

UpDate (8/15/08): Miami Today reports 60 core borings 185-feet in depth show the land is "strong enough to withstand its 1,049-foot height." The next step is to present the 8,300-page construction plans to the City of Miami's planning department for review and approval. The city has warned Hollo that the review process may take two years. Building is expected to take 3-4 years with completion by 2016. Mr. Hollo is quoted as saying he wants "to leave it (the building) as a legacy to the city."

The Architecture God Has Spoken: Oppenheim has Vision-- but where's the record breaking height?

I was in Dubai recently checking out the buildings rising there when I checked my emails from Verticus. The Transit Miami blog had scored some major pics of a proposed building for the downtown campus of Miami Dade College. MVB had ran an earlier posting applauding Miami Dade for its visionary quest for a developer to share the property in exchange for giving the college what it needs to expand and flourish. The Calatrava posting urged the college to hold out for the tallest building in the world. MVB believes it's the last piece of prime downtown land worthy of nothing less than the biggest and best. Although Oppenheim's proposal is worthy, it isn't all that original-- it's been done in China-- and it isn't tall enough. Make it bigger, big guy. Give those mortal Miamian's something to crow about.

The Architecture God Has Spoken: 5th And Alton is an ABC!

5th & Alton, the big box "vertical retail center" that will be built at the gateway to Miami Beach from MacArthur Causeway defines what happens when art and architecture meet a committee, something I blithely label-- because I can-- Atrocity By Committee. The ABCing of the American landscape occurs when the anal and small minded laboring under the auspices of a selected group arbitrarily rework an artist's vision to make it palatable for their communities, often draining it of its power and individuality.

Case in point is 5th & Alton. The Miami Beach Design Review and Historic Preservation boards rejected two designs before accepting this one. According to the Miami Herald, the developer's first submission was Art Deco-- but it was rejected because they wanted a "world class" design at the entrance to the Beach. The reworked design was rejected for a second time because it was too world class. The one you see here is the third and final design which passed muster. Too bad "too world class" won't cut it on the Beach. Setting arbitrary standards on what is acceptable for the public by a group of self-righteous know-it-alls hurts everyone and deprives our community from another opportunity to stand out from the crowd of the pedestrian and boring. Remember this, my children, art should never be left in the hands of a committee.

I find very little appealing about 5th & Alton aside from the Publix and the Best Buy that will be going there for you mortals. In my opinion, aesthetically it could have been much, much more-- especially for such a landmark site. For example, what's with all that curved concrete facing one of the best views of downtown Miami and cruise ships leaving the Port of Miami? Where's the glass? Bar and restaurant space could have been put there. Can't you imagine the sunset views? Thanks to all of that parabolic concrete, I'm sure the intense concentrated sunlight bouncing off the wall will melt metal and blind drivers on the Alton Road flyover, adding new meaning to the term "flyover." In the end, Miami Beach becomes just another atrocity on the American landscape.

It's Time To Stop...

Leave it to the Russkies to make you feel old. Yesterday a thousand baton wielding cops and God-knows-how-many undercover cops beat back a peaceful demonstration in Pushkin Square. For those who haven't been paying attention, it seems a lot of Russians are pissed off with Putin, accusing him and his government of rolling back their freedoms. Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion was detained for a short while. It all got me to thinking about that great Buffalo Springfield song (which I hope you're listening to while reading this). It's called "For What It's Worth." Wikipedia reminded me it came out in January 1967. Over 40 years ago. Stephen Stills is singing. Buffalo Springfield was the band he formed before Crosby, Stills, Nash, (and sometimes Young). Neil Young and Jim Messina (later of Loggins & Messina) were members of Buffalo Springfield. That was a magical time for rock music and this song captured the general paranoia young people had during that period. It added a foreboding counterpoint to that year's Summer of Love, the last great blowout before America's downward slide through two assassinations and the dark years of the Viet Nam war. Demographics on bloggers show most of you weren't born yet but that doesn't mean you can't appreciate the Russkies for resurrecting that great old street anthem which I'm sure, by the way things are going, you'll be hearing a lot more of. The picture is from November 2003. It shows our cops protecting us from folks against the FTAA, something MVB is for. It's our feeble attempt at making our posts relevant to Miami and the Beaches. I bet those Miami and Russkie protesters were listening to that great lyric, "there's a man with a gun over there, telling me I got to beware..." through ear buds connected to their iPods. Except for technology, some things never change.

UpDate (12/3): Putin pummels Kasparov and democracy at the polls as Russia overwhelmingly hands him the power to become anything he wants. We bet he chooses dictator.

The Architecture God Has Spoken: Espirito Santo Plaza in Miami Shows Less Really is More

I consider this to be one of the most beautiful buildings in the world and the best example of my credo Less is More. According to the Espirito Banco Portuguese banking family, their 36-story Miami office, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates , symbolizes Miami's gateway to the Americas. The subtle, 30-story concave arch of glass is Miami's answer to the St. Louis Gateway Arch. Located in Miami's financial district which has become known as the "Wall Street of the South," the building sits at 1395 Brickell Avenue as a glistening jewel of monumental sculpture. Consisting of offices, condos, and a luxury hotel (Conrad Hilton) on the last 11-floors, the things I love most about it besides its sublime design are:

• It's ballsy sky lobby that begins on the 25th floor. It separates the hotel suites from the condos and serves as the access point to the restaurant and lounge. The view is to die for and the happy hour drinking scene is well worth the schlep upward.

• An inspiring four-story, glass atrium surrounding a "water court" on the second level. This open, naturally lit space contains the main elevator banks and a translucent glass-bottomed reflecting pool above the building's driveway and a pedestrian bridge from the adjacent parking garage.
• Moving water is "an integral part of the aesthetics of the building" and that theme is found throughout the complex in various forms ranging from waterfalls to reflecting pools.

Now if someone would just fix the broken windows from hurricane Wilma! I mean, it's close to a year-and-a-half since it hit for crisesakes! Do I have to come down there and do it myself? Don't make me come down there. I'm warning you. If you can't take care of your beautiful things, I'll find me another city to favor where its citizens love and respect where they live. You know, some place like Atlanta.

Previous pronouncements by A.G can be found here.

The Architecture God Has Spoken: The FTAA Miami Secretariat Building Design is Fabulous!

Despite what some mortals may think about the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) initiative*, the design for the building's Miami headquarters by local architectural firm Spillis Candela is the stuff dreams are made of. And hope too. Built to house offices for 34 nations on Watson Island smack dab in the middle of Biscayne Bay, it reminds me of the fantastic post-apocalyptic world found in "Cadillacs and Dinosaurs," a collection of comics drawn by one of my favorite mortals, Mark Schultz. In that 26th Century world, the earth's sea levels have risen to the point that New York city has become known as the "City by the Sea," with skyscrapers protruding through the water like marching sentinels with no streets below, just water and, in some instances, steps leading out of the water. Just like the Spillis Candela design which I find is a prophetic ecological cautionary tale that reminds you at the same time of your connection with your watery origins when hybrid creatures with lungs crawled out of the water millions of years ago. Plus it's a nice place to catch some rays or toss a fishing line.

*I like the idea. You mortals have got to start thinking as one living organisim. Everything is interconnected in ways you cannot fathom.

Previous pronouncements by A.G can be found here.

The Architecture God Has Spoken: Terra Beachside Villas Makes It Okay To Play In The Middle Of The Street!

Let It Be Known: A.G. The Architecture God Favors Architects Who Break The Rules!

Your mother told you not to play in the street. I'm telling you it's okay-- if you look like this: Terra Beachside Villas. Designed by Miami's bad boys of architecture Sieger Suarez, Terra Beach Villas can be found at 6000 Collins Ave, smack dab in the middle of the street just east of Indian Creek and west of the Atlantic Ocean on Miami Beach.

What I like about Terra Beachside Villas:

• The 3-story cone. It's the fitness center. A swimming pool curves through the building.
• The 400' translucent arched roof atrium that protects a "Zen-inspired" garden with reflecting fountains.
• Themes. The 2 and 3-story units, starting at $610,000, are divided into the four elements of Earth (private yards), Wind (roof terraces), Fire and Water (balconies with views facing east and west).
• The parking garage is hidden (it's subterranean).
• Access to the beach through its sister properties Cabana, located across the street on the ocean side, and a private marina on the other side of the street at 6000 Indian Creek.
  

Rejoice, my children! Be thankful that you are living in a part of the world that will soon become known for more than its climate.

Other Pronouncements by A.G., The Architecture God: Touzet is FUN!, COR is Cute!, Gehry's Design for Miami Beach's New World Symphony Sucks Big Time!

The Architecture God Has Spoken: Touzet is FUN!!

Enhance your blogging pleasure: Push the button.*

Like Eastwood's iconic nameless cowboy, there is a Miami building on the drawing boards with no name too. Equally enigmatic and dangerously charismatic, it's the product of another Miami architectural firm that shoots from the hip disrupting the status quo with dead eye accuracy on art's primo credo: Don't bore me, show me something new, make me see something in a whole new way. Few artists can pull that off. Most are imitative. Few are worthy. The Touzet Studio is one of the worthiest. Designed by the husband and wife team of Jacqueline Gonzalez-Touzet and Carlos Prio-Touzet, the building, located at 111 N.E. 11th Street just south of I-395 and behind the 67-story Marquis now under construction, will have twin towers rising 42 and 38-stories over ground floor retail. Although it may fall in the morning shadows of the giants rising a block east on Biscayne Boulevard, it will never be overshadowed by them because of its whimsical shapes, brave use of color, and daring use of space.

Things I like about it:

• The glass nose cone at the top of the taller building. Very Jetsons. If I were a loser mortal, that'd be my pad.
• The angled five-story pock-marked wall painted with huge leopard spots. Oh, how I love leopard prints and neon (hope it's got that too!) This is a fitting gesture toward its location: Miami's designated nightclub district.
• Huge columns thrown helter-skelter about the base as if by a giant playing with his pick-up sticks-- something I can relate to.
• A sundeck perched precariously over the street that serves as a grotto to collect the waterfall from the infinity pool above.
• Use of materials that will change color and give the building the appearance of motion to those driving by.

Word on the street is that it may even be affordable. Only time will tell. Ah, just thinking about it brings a smile to my face.

*Any excuse to listen to some Morricone is a good enough reason to push the button.

Other posts by A.G.:
It's Okay to Play In The Street,
COR is CUTE!, Gehry Sucks Big Time.

The Architecture God Has Spoken: COR is CUTE!

It's not everyday I see a building I want to stick my finger into and say "Cootchie-cootchie-cootchie-coo" to, but I must say Chad Oppenheim's design for a new building called COR in Miami's Design District is one of them. In fact, it may be the only one. Here's a building that doesn't have to be fun like that Disney stuff up in Orlando, but it is. Plus, it will be one of Miami's first green buildings. The mixed-use commercial/residential tower will get power from wind turbines and photovoltaic panels. Hot water will come from solar panels. Oppenheim is one of a slew of exciting architects who call Miami home. Although this city may never see the tallest skyscrapers on the planet, it may come to be known as the host city of some of the world's best architectural firms and some of the most important paradigm expanding buildings of this new era. You can see more of Mr. Oppenheim's work here. AG for MVB.

Other postings by A.G: It's Okay To Play In The Street, Touzet Is Fun!, Gehry Sucks Big Time!

The Architecture God Has Spoken: Gehry's Design for Miami Beach's New World Symphony Sucks Big Time!

Within moments of publishing our take on Frank Gehry's design for Miami Beach's New World Symphony, MVB received a very loud knock at the door interrupting our mojito break. Bobby Enzyte, tripping over his pants, stumbled to the door and opened it wide. Bobby was knocked backwards as a giant hand poked through very much like King Kong's hand did in Fay Wray's bedroom in the original and still best titular film and slapped a giant Post-It Note aside of publisher Verticus S. Erectus' head. Stunned, the MVB staff stared in awe and trembled in unison as a deep reverberating voice sounding a lot like James Earl Jones' announced that we were in the presence of A.G the ARCHITECTURE GOD and he was not happy. It seems he had high hopes for Gehry and, like us, was just as disappointed. Let us rephrase that: He was COSMICALLY disappointed and wanted us to blog cyberspace ASAP or else suffer His wrath. Father Al immediately fell to his knees and started genuflecting and crying. A.G told him to stop his sniveling and get up and post the blog which, of course, we are happy to do.

UpDate (1-hour later): A.G is cool. We introduced him to the mojito and we are like, best buds. In fact, he has agreed to write for MVB!

UpDate (3-years later): Even gods can be...fallible. In retrospect as the Gehry building is about to open, I can see where I was...a little hasty in my pronouncement. It's not destination architecture, but it does have some merit. The more I learn about its functionality-- something Michael Tilson Thomas insisted upon-- I can see where and why Mr. Gehry lost his love of curves and free-flowing lines in favor of the boring boxiness of utilitarianism. I, in fact, look forward to its opening in January 2011 and hope to be sitting on the lawn outside listening to the music inside and watching huge video images cast on the outside projection wall. With a mojito in hand, of course.