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State of the Arts
The Changing Face of Miami's Cultural Institutions
Text By: Damir A. Sinovcic
The first decade of the 21st century has witnessed a remarkable change in the quality and visual expression of Miami’s major cultural institutions. The roster of architects and designers selected to undertake this metamorphosis reads as a who’s who list of influential firms and trademark names befitting Miami’s status as the metropolitan hub of the Americas.
Arsht Center by Cesar Pelli
http://www.carnivalcenter.org/
The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County was the first of the new landmarks to make its mark on the city’s changing cultural scene. This building was designed by the Connecticut firm of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects lead by the Argentinean-born Cesar Pelli whose design for the Petronas Towers had put Kuala Lumpur on the architectural map a few years earlier.
Knight Concert Halll Lobby. Photo courtesy of The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County.
At its planning stages, the building location presented a design challenge of its own. Though in a prime downtown location, this neglected neighborhood required a powerful catalyst to drive in change and generate a worthy stimulus for urban renewal. Though the process was lengthy, the building was completed in 2006 and has since become surrounded by luxury developments and a pedestrian-friendly environment.
This theatre features the 2,400 seat Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House, 2,200 seat John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall, a flexible 200 seat Carnival Studio Theater, as well as a large plaza for socializing and outdoor performance overlooked by the restored art deco tower, a remnant of the site’s previous incarnation. The building also showcases installations by five outstanding artists commissioned by Miami-Dade Art in Public Places. What was once a derelict corner of Biscayne Boulevard has since become the go to location for theatre lovers and production companies alike.
MAM by Herzog & de Meuron
http://www.miamiartmuseum.org/exhibitions-current-herzog.asp
Continuing Miami’s cultural and urban renewal is the new Museum Park master plan. Though not without controversy, this proposal features a public park planned by Cooper, Robertson & Partners as well as a Science Museum designed by the London based firm Grimshaw Architects.
Perhaps the most anticipated portion of the master plan, however, is the new home of the Miami Art Museum (MAM) designed by progressive Swiss architects and Pritzker Architecture Prize winners, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. The new building will provide a larger, better equipped, and certainly more eye-catching venue for one of Miami’s premiere cultural institutions. Drawing cues from Florida’s ecology and the natural environment, museum’s structure will explore the relationship between interior and exterior space while providing an arena for public interaction.
Miami Art Museum Model.
The building is still in the design phase and is slated to open in 2012. “Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have designed a building that fits Miami perfectly. They understand the role that the new MAM will play as a civic hub in downtown Miami and have designed a building that is extraordinarily accessible and welcoming” said Terence Riley, Director of Miami Art Museum.
The new MAM will be more than three times the size of its current facility and will allow for larger and more frequent events and exhibitions to satisfy Miami’s vibrant arts scene.
NWS Campus by Frank Gehry
The most recent change to the face of Miami’s cultural institutions comes from the New World Symphony (NWS). NWS is a world class orchestral academy whose formative years have been spent in the Lincoln Theatre on Miami Beach. Various limitations of this vintage building prompted the NWS to seek a new home that’s larger and more technologically sophisticated.
The solution came from another Pritzker Architecture Prize winner. Frank Gehry, the internationally renowned architect responsible for the Bilbao Guggenheim and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, CA is designing the future NWS campus in Miami Beach. The new campus will house rehearsal rooms, technology suites, practice rooms, and performance space. Digital advancements will even support teleconferencing and live webcasts capable of reaching a global audience.
NWS new campus performance space. Photo courtesy of the New World Symphony.
Although this is primarily a teaching institution, the public will be invited to take part in events and performances and the building itself will be integrated in the public life of Miami Beach. Gehry’s design for the The New World Symphony will be his first commission in the State and is poised to become a landmark.
Cesar Pelli, Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, and Frank Gehry are some of the most recognized contemporary designers in the world. Their visions combined with the direction from their clients and the public are creating an exciting new look for Miami’s cultural scene.
