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.

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."

70-Story Skyscraper Planned for Downtown Miami

Tibor Hollo has always commanded our respect. He is a true visionary. But calling the 70-story mixed-use tower he plans to build at 100 S. Biscayne Blvd a "signature building" would only be true if your handwriting was, at best, lacking style and grace and, at its worst, if it were completely illegible. Twisting spires are popping up all over the world, most showing much more finesse than this design. Still, his attempt to build a tall building downtown and have it opened by 2011 is worth a doff of our backward wearing Kangols.

Tibor Hollo

Let's just hope he won't compromise the height for One Bayfront Plaza to please the visionless bureaucrats taking up space at the Miami-Dade Aviation Department. According to a Miami Today article, the projected height of 1,049 feet (with 13 foot floor-to-ceiling heights-- the highest for any building downtown) surpasses the allowed height by 100 feet. In June or July an ordinance comes before the county commission that would allow buildings to be as tall as... 1,000 feet.

Whoop-tee-do. In our opinion, there shouldn't be any height restrictions on any downtown buildings.

In the old days, when Hollo first came to Miami and started building it up, he was a pioneer and gutsy brawler who never had a problem taking on any governmental fool who dared question his buildings. Now, it seems he's way too ready to compromise. As an example, Miami Today shows him acquiescing on more than a number of issues regarding his "bad handwriting building." Aside from parking concessions which Hollo and we don't have a problem with (planners want him to take advantage of a standing offer to all developers to shave off 10% of their proposed parking if their buildings are within 600 feet of a MetroMover station to encourage people not to use their cars. In this case, that means he could nix 256 parking spaces), Hollo made us nervous when he was willing to say good-bye to a pedestrian bridge designed to connect his building to a MetroMover station. Planners believe this will encourage street level pedestrian traffic. And, of course, it will but we think it's one stupid idea. How convenient it would have been to step out of a MetroMover car and walk over Biscayne Blvd without waiting for traffic to stop for you (like Miamian's stop for pedestrians anyway).* What we would have liked to have read is Hollo telling them to "fuck off and kiss my ass. I'm keeping the bridge and I'm building my building as big as I want it to be." But that only happens in the movies and books like "The Fountainhead."

Donna Elizabeth Milo, a member of the city's planning board, is quoted as saying "we want to be a world-class city, and this is a world-class office building."

Not really. It's just a building that's been done before-- and with more grace and class. World class. As far as we're concerned, Miami still hasn't landed that "signature building." But it's at least a step in the right direction.

UpDate (6/21): Miami city commissioners allowed building heights in the urban core to increase from 949' to 1,000' per the aviation departments suggestion.

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."

*We're only kidding. We know Miamians have been known to stop for pedestrians and rarely hit-and-run.

Carnival Center for the Performing Arts: Stop the Hemorrhaging Now!

Enough already with shoring up Carnival Center. In today's world, unless you own a theatre sans mortgage, the only one making a profit in the performing arts is the theatre owner who leases his space to whatever fool-- excuse us, producer*-- who thinks he can make a buck off his show. Now we learn that the nearly half-billion dollar Carnival Center, only seven months old, needs another $4 million to keep its doors open through summer. This is more than double the yearly estimate of running the complex.

Who is responsible for this woefully low estimate? A man we were told was the best for the position after a nation-wide search: President and CEO Michael Hardy.

MVB urges the commission to accept the fact that Carnival will never make money and to stop the hemorrhaging now by:

• Refraining from giving Hardy the money,
• Giving Hardy the axe instead.

Here's why we believe Hardy has to go. The Miami Herald reports the budget is so far off because:

• Hardy didn't know how to figure out the estimated cost of running the air-conditioning. Instead of figuring costs based on the volume of both performance halls, he estimated electrical costs based on the square footage of the spaces. Most high school students could have given the county the right figures-- at a fraction of Hardy's salary,
• Knowing how important it was to be frugal with the public's money, Hardy still spent big bucks on outside consultants instead of conferring with the architects or at least county in-house experts in building and zoning. Hardy blames those same consultants for not being able to do the math re estimating the electrical costs to cool the two massive buildings,
• Failure to budget for police services on show nights. Among other things.

When we hear bureaucrats turning to outside consultants at tax payers expense instead of turning to the professionals in the county and city building and zoning departments, it gives us pause: do they know something we don't know? Isn't anyone qualified enough in those departments to formulate numbers you can count on? If there aren't, shouldn't we be worried?

Maybe Terence Riley, former head of Architecture at MOMA and now the director of the Miami Art Museum, should be cut some slack instead of getting our criticism. After all, he's budgeting for outside consultants ranging from companies who will advise on escalators and elevators ($50,000) to $2.2 million for MEP/FP Consultants (whoever they are) to help Herzog & de Meuron design our new art museum. Maybe he, like Hardy, knows something we don't know. After all, he's at the top in his field too. Miami's intelligentsia was tripping over itself and backslapping itself and depositing air-kisses on its collective cheeks when it was announced we landed the guy who also happens to be a licensed architect.

Which brings us back to the real question: aren't these kinds of things best handled by the architects chosen to design the buildings at considerable expense to the public? If you can't believe your architect of record, who can you believe? Oh, that's right, your consultant-- at considerable expense to the public.

In any event, Hardy's got to go because Carnival can't afford his incompetency. Even if it will never make money, at least it will be managed properly. Art and science museum directors are allowed a little more slack only because their charges are less dynamic income generators. Unless you're booking the Mona Lisa, Bodies or King Tut, museums are never expected to be self-supporting through ticket sales-- especially publicly funded buildings costing more than many countries' GNP. Let's just hope Riley's consultants get the air-conditioning costs right.

UpDate (5/29): Carnival Center will be closed in August and for part of September for "routine maintenance," officials say according to Miami Today. "Albert Milano, who previously served on the Carnival Center's board of directors, said he knew of some construction and maintenance issues that need to be addressed." Yeah, like building a parking garage for one thing.

UpDate (6/14): Riley gets an extra $2 million from Miami city commissioners for his art museum.

UpDate (6/20): The Herald reports today that county manager Burgess blames the deficit on Carnival Center management. No kidding? Still, he recommends that the county commission give Hardy and his incompetent crew the $4.1 million "infusion" they're asking for, which is not surprising considering Burgess' magnificent management style.

UpDate (6/27): The Miami-Dade County Commission caves and gives Carnival $4.1 million to keep it afloat. Although management was criticized and threatened, Hardy and his crew are still at the helm.

*Don't get us wrong. We love producers! The world would be a duller place without them. It takes a rare combination of balls, business sense, and a love of theatre to be successful in that field but no one has those traits in government.

UpDate (10/30): Hardy is fired and replaced with legendary wunderkind Lawrence J. Wilker (JFK Center) and some guy named Scott Shiller for $40,000 a month for 6 months until they or someone else is permanently hired.

Miami 21: Don't be miserly with the vision

Our previous post regarding development got us to thinking about Miami 21, the City of Miami's attempt to come up with a reasonable, forward thinking plan for urban development. We urge its designers and its implementers to consider the words of one of the world's greatest architects and city planners, the very late Daniel Burnham:

"Make no small plans. They have no magic to stir humanity's blood."

Specifically, save room in your master plan for the biggest and best buildings in downtown Miami. Don't settle for anything less than buildings that push the envelope and make us proud, that put Miami on the collective conscious map of the world.

UpDate (6/28): City of Miami commissioners postponed voting for or against Miami 21 so they can study it further.

Miami: Where's the Vision?

It sure isn't in the Miami-Dade County Commission. When they recently put the kabosh on a $3 million six-year study to guide responsible development for the next 40-years, MVB took note. It wasn't surprising to find the manatees worst enemy, commissioner Natasha "I want my water" Seijas, leading the charge against reason but we choked on our mojitos when we read in the Miami Herald that the commission's most consistent environmentally friendly commissioner Katy Sorenson was also dissing the study. It appears the main argument against the study which is officially called the "South Miami-Dade Watershed Study and Plan," is its insistence on corralling urban sprawl and encouraging development-- low rise condos and town houses-- along existing highways, especially U.S. 1. Sorenson thinks the plan is unnecessary because planned communities in her neck of the woods are already implementing a common sense/environmentally responsible approach to development.

We think this community needs all the incentives and laws it can muster to encourage responsible growth and can't understand why any reasonable person would find fault with the logic behind the plan-- even if it is redundant. As in most fail-safe systems, redundancy is built in to insure it works. When it comes to quality of life issues, this community can use all of the redundancy it can get.

Commissioner Dennis Moss is quoted as saying, " It's not an easy issue and folks are not going to give in terms of their philosophies" (regarding development). He-- and developers quoted in the article-- say people want "suburban dream homes" with yards instead of town homes and condos and don't mind the commute to get to them.

We say, start leading instead of being led by your "electorate," which we fear may have an abnormally high level of developers residing there. Show some vision and take a stand for doing the right thing-- like county mayor Carlos Alverez who is for the plan. Even if it is redundant.

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.

Grimshaw Architects Win Commission To Design New Miami Science Museum

The London based firm Grimshaw Architects has won the commission to design Miami's new $275 million Science Museum in Bicentennial Park. The Coral Gables firm Rodriguez and Quiroga won the spot for "executive architect," which will oversee construction documentation for permitting and building.

The 200,000 square foot Science Museum (with 25,000 square feet dedicated to the Historical Museum of Southern Florida) will be built next to the proposed $208 million Miami Art Museum, which will be designed by the equally revered Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre De Meuron.

The Science Museum is scheduled to open 2011, a year after the opening of the Art Museum. According to the Miami Herald, the Science Museum will "include an aquarium spanning three floors, with mangroves and seagrass at the top, a tropical coral reef in the middle, and large sea creatures such as sharks and rays on the ground level...rooftop observatory, a 300-seat planetarium and a wildlife center, all on the roof."

When these museums kick in and join the Carnival Center and the American Airlines Arena, who wouldn't want to live downtown? Talk about an urban cultural mecca, these amenities will propel Miami into the top ten cities in the world and cement its claim to being the "Gateway to the Americas."

MVB Worthy Award Goes To Jose Solares

The MVB Worthy Award was inspired by "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," a 1963 movie starring Phil Silvers, Spencer Tracy, and Jonathan Winters among others. The parallels between the film and life in Miami-Dade County were eerily similar starting with the title of the picture which resonated with local relevance. In the movie, the characters will stop at nothing to get rich, just like many of our public "servants." When Jonathan Winters yells, "It's the Big 'W,' I tell ya, the Big 'W'!", they are led to believe that four palm trees resembling a "Big W" mark the spot where a recently deceased old guy's (Jimmy Durante) riches are buried. MVB liked the idea of taking a negative symbol that served as a beacon for cutthroat opportunists and transforming it into a positive one used in an award that recognizes the efforts of those men and women fighting corruption and unbridled spending in a public sector palm covered world gone mad by greed and bone-headed stupidity.

Our third ever MVB Worthy Award goes to the rarest of breeds, the public servant who can say no to spending your money. When Terence Riley, president of the Miami Art Museum, came begging recently for millions of dollars from the Bond Oversight committee to build his $208 million museum, all but one of its board members caved. That gentleman's name is Jose Solares. It seemed Mr. Solares, an electrical engineer appointed by Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, had a problem with the museum's preliminary budget's consulting fees, some of which are listed here*:

• $2.2 million for MEP/FP consultants
• $1.1 million for structural consultants
• $200,000 for a lighting consultant
• $125,000 for acoustical/audiovisual consultants
• $100,000 for food consultants
• $100,000 for thermal studies
• $50,000 for digital systems consultants
• $50,000 for an elevator/escalator consultant
• $50,000 for a retail consultant

As much as we want to see the art and science museums rise at Bicentennial Park, we'd also love to see somebody pull in the reins at least once in awhile against the charging, mindless beasts running roughshod over the public coffers. There aren't enough public servants like Mr. Solares riding shotgun on the county and city's runaway stagecoach. He may have lost this one, but he won our respect and humble recognition.

UpDate (6/14): Riley gets an extra $2 million from City of Miami commissioners for his museum.

*As reported in the April 5th edition of The SunPost.

5 Architects Make Cut to Design Miami Science Museum

Five world renowned architectural firms made the cut to design Miami's new Science Museum along Biscayne Bay. They are:

• Grimshaw Architects
  This UK company is the same firm that designed the enclosed baseball stadium shown at the right of the MVB home page. Shown on the right is a building they designed for the Eden Project (2001).

• Steven Holl Architects
  Named America's Best Architect by Time Magazine in 2001, we particularly like his Busan Cinema Complex in Pusan, Korea.

• Polshek Partnership Architects
  Shown at the right is the New York firm's re-imagining of the Hayden Planetarium for New York's American Museum of Natural History Rose Center for Earth and Space.

• Wilkinson Eyre Architects
  Of the five firms, this UK company's design for the New Crystal Palace Exhibition Hall and Sculpture Garden in London intrigues us the most. Wrapped in glass, photovoltaic cells are embedded in the "skin" to provide solar power while "gill-like" louvres provide natural ventilation.

• Zaha Hadid Architects
  This UK firm, headed by Ms. Zaha Hadid, an Iraqi born British citizen, is one of the bright lights of deconstructivist architecture. Her work is right out of a Frank Herbert "Dune" novel, something very other-worldly and a whole lot of fun to look at. The building pictured to the right is her design for the Nuragic and Contemporary Art Museum in Cagliari, Italy (2007). She is the only one of the five who has won the celebrated Pritzker Prize in architecture (2004).

Three other firms were chosen to submit proposals for the "executive architect" role. They are:

• Burns & McDonnell
• Leo A Daly
• Rodriguez & Quiroga

These eight firms were culled from 35 submissions. Final architect selection is scheduled for May 1st and 2nd in what is promised to be a "transparent process" conducted in a public forum. There is no mention in the museum's press release whether or not the public's opinion will really be considered. At least it won't be left in the hands of one person to choose the architect as it was for architects for our new art museum. Yes, we're still disappointed Gehry didn't get chosen for that project. And, yes, Herzog and de Meuron (2001 Pritzker Prize) are more than worthy and we look forward to seeing what they whipped up for the art museum, but we have a jones for Gehry-- despite his disappointing design for Miami Beach's New World Symphony. We are also disappointed that not one local architectural firm made the cut when there are so many worthy ones.

UpDate (5/2/07): Grimshaw wins.

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.

Gehry Light: Miami Beach's New World Symphony Design

As much as we love the work of Frank Gehry, we are disappointed with his concept for Miami Beach's New World Symphony. Where is the spirit lifting, gravity defying, middle-finger raising architectural hubris to cosmic laws about physics that say it can't be done? Talk about "big box" retail architecture, even most Best Buy stores exhibit more courage per dollar spent on their designs.

Calatrava Miami?

MVB doesn't know how it was back in ancient Athens 2,500 years ago when they were building the Parthenon, whether or not the citizens had any input in the design, but for what it's worth, as citizens of Miami, we're suggesting that we go for the "big one" when erecting the next building on the Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus in downtown Miami.

In a rare example of the public sector using a visionary approach in solving a problem, the college recently ran a full page color ad on the back of the Miami Herald's Business Monday tabloid looking for partners to develop "one of the last parcels of undeveloped land on Biscayne Boulevard" which they own. Realizing they need another 250,000 s.f. for an Arts and Humanities Center, they decided it would be a win-win situation for private developers to build the structure in exchange for "air rights."

It's amazing that this property is still available. Just south of the Freedom Tower and the American Airlines Arena, Lot 1 (see map) hopefully will attract an equally visionary deep pockets developer to take them up on the offer with a landmark design that mixes office and living space with the college's needs.

Hopefully, too, the building won't be anything subtle. As a "beacon" to those around the world searching for an education, it should stand out from the crowd-- and not just the buildings around it, but also all the others in all the cities around the globe that claim and will claim to have the tallest buildings. Miami should raise the bar high enough that we, as proud citizens of south Florida, can claim bragging rights that will last at least a century (2,500 years might be asking too much).

To perk the digital ether, we've Photoshopped Santiago Calatrava's proposed world's tallest Chicago tower onto the Miami Dade college site. We think it looks pretty good there. Actually, Calatrava's design would look good anywhere-- especially next to an actual Miami proposal for the world's tallest condos called Empire World Towers.

Hopefully seeing this MVB proposal will start people thinking about the really big picture that speaks to the intangible aspects of the human heart with an architecture that lifts the spirit and sparks the imagination like the Parthenon has done for mankind all these years.

Perhaps a Pericles, the visionary Athenian politician who gave the world the Parthenon, will rise above the pettiness of local politics and take a stand for bold vision by simply requiring that the design will be this new millennium's Parthenon.

Miami is in a unique place in time that probably won't come around for another hundred years before the towers that are being built today are torn down and replaced with newer models. We should leap at this opportunity to snare the skyscraper title. In fact, we should look at it as our civic duty-- just like the ancient Athenians did. Let's make Biscayne Boulevard the "Boulevard of the Giants."

You can read more regarding this proposed partnership on the college's web site.

Shipping Container Homes Update: A Florida Connection

Peter DeMaria, the architect responsible for championing the reuse of Intermodal Steel Building Units (ISBUs) aka "shipping containers" for housing, has a Tampa connection. Tampa Armature Works, an 85-year-old Florida company, makes the ISBUs to Mr. DeMaria's specs and ships them to California. If you believe as we do that the ISBUs can be an economical and aesthetically pleasing quick fix to public housing and would like to learn more and see how they are made and installed, please click this link to a Bob Villa video. The 6-chapter video chronicles the building of hurricane resistant low income housing using ISBUs in St. Petersburg. It offers an exciting and informative look at how the ISBU exceeds the Florida hurricane building code and will squash any reservations about using them here. The chapter on the NASA spray-on ceramic is quite fascinating. The thin coating has an amazing R-factor of 20 and is shown being sprayed on site.

MVB believes using the fruits of NASA technology and recycling shipping containers is a viable quick-fix solution to closing the affordable housing gap and supplying much needed public housing in Dade County and urge its usage.