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Home My WebLink AboutSubmittallie 1'eavRork gill o' TUESDAY, MAY30, 2006 Miami Invaded by Celebrity Architects By ROBIN POGREBIN MIAMI Just when it seemed that the traditional Miami aesthetic had' madea national comeback — .Miam:.i, Invaded.: by Celebrity Architects, Becomes Their Idea Lab. space -age -style motifs re' enterifg the vocabulary of so many develop- Continued From First Arts page this'city's architecture. The,Big Architects are 0940raa - On Lincoln Road alone i0 Miami Beach, Enrique Norten, Frank Geh- ry and the team of Jacques Herzog and: Pierre de Meuron are etl.at work on major projects. From lidr. Norten here ::is a low -slung condominium and retail build, „,- ing, and Mr Her-,, rug, and Mr. de<,;, Meuron are .de- ngning a distm6- ave parking, ga;; rage integrated;, with retail, .offlde', and -: residential; apace: Frank; 3ehry i$ creating' a concert hall and sigh -tech dis ante -learning :enter for the slew World Sym ihony: And Mr. slorten has at east two other 'rejects m Mf-": tan:AOWLIGI, ami-, including the Enrique Nor- io -called Flatiron: ten's "Flat- iron building. Downtown, Museum of Contemporary Art here after departing as chief architecture curator at the'Museurti of.Modern ArtinNewYork. Asa result, he.said, they are bet in 3%-urauitot top Mr. Pella said that since he began- •et%orking on the. Performing Arta ten* ter: about eight years ago, Miami has -taken a giant step in spending the money needed:' to set higher stand - a rsjs for design and materials "Peo- °'-le are caring more for quality, and; i .. oy are more ready* make the efr s: -fortthat quality takes,' he said. 3 Mr ^Meier, whose- Beach'Housa its tfijdeS'a double -height lobby with di- - rsarM,u.e,g&,p 'kmt views the - sea, agreed "It's The Miami 5ttnd of coomea alive again after peri- ami School of Architecture, designed by Bernard Tschumi, a 'bdof stagnation," he said. "I think '''i4's'`because there is just' an error- mous number o1 young people in Mi- ami who are :"interested :`in doing things of quality." 'So far, developers 'say it seems If the investment will pay off, "We -didn't say, 'We're going :.to need a '; world;famous architect to sell 150 ,residences on: Lincoln Road; " said Glenn Boyer, the director of develop-.'. ment for PLC Investments, wh,ch is Pelli's -developing Lincoln East, the Norte' ren"r9Rti -tsar A renderiri o Duch -awaited Miami Performing condominiums. "certainly it won't g flLnrique'Norten's:Lincoln Road project in Miami. krts Center is scheduled to open late hart from a marketing perspective." his: year, featuring a soaring lobby; "_ A- star architect also lends mo- a 2,400-seat operahouse, a2,200-&eat 'rhenium to the,publlc approval pro- -oncert hall and a 200-seat theater 'teas, some developers say. inkedby a pedestrian bind ef'ov*er ',Mayor Manny Diaz said he had en' 3iscayne Boulevafd Ift.a nodd=t the touraged the hiring of top-flight tat - mat, Mr Pellt hespreserved whatlts ent "Architects anddevelopers see eft of the old Seara building„ an Art "this'as a greatlaboratory to be ere - Deco tower with ttuted piers,.:whieh, atve, he said. iunctuates his design. � Mr. Gehry said he wanted to honor And op Collins Avenue Rlchid the "context of South Beach with his Meier has designed the oeeanlr t i performance space while 'bringing 3each House,,,a 12-storyf,glps i- , something new to It. "I love those :losed condominiumwhullding: offer- buildings,' he said of the neighbor- ng:panoramic vtewaofthe Water. hood. "It'& like:, Mykonos:: there's a.._ Major developers across the Conn- coherence to ft.-We're trying to play ry have long since realized, .of with that or to stay within it" - :ourse, that ,delebrlty,arejtltentare' He said he was not yet tree to dis- ells, But its sudden rise here.seems cuss the details of hit design for the inked to a new level of design con- New World Symphony but: that the .ciousness, ad.qutgrowthi the now- hall would be relatively understated. intrenched fashionsridtls�ltl, South "It's not a Bilbao," he said, referring 3each and the lioomning-&teas` of to the Guggenheim museum branch lrt.Basel Miattfl B5aph, an $tit fair field: annuallysince2000. "Miami has burst through. the line ietween being.'.design.conscious ;eneral and having more detailed iwareness of the top architects vorldwide," said Terence Riley, who ecently took over as director of the Continued on Page 7 he designed for that 'city in Spain. "It's a fairly rectilinear, simple building„ John Stuart, an associate pretes- sor of architecture at Florida In- ternational University, describes Mi- ami as a place that has been built in.. spurts punctuated by downturns. He Said the current surge In quality ar- chitecture could represent perhaps yet another significant phase in the city's development history. "In five years people are going to be able to come here and see a cot lectlon of leading architects from they first decade of the 21st century," Mr. Stuart said: At Florida International, a new architecture school designed by Bernard Tachumi opened itt 2003;. featuring two sober concrete wings enlivened by structures, referred to as "generators,' that are clad in red and yellow ceramic tiles. Yet designing for Miami can be a challenge, architects: say, given .the weather — heat, hurricanes, high winds — and the range of cultural in- fluences that coexist in the city. "What's been very challenging for us is to find the local conditions for a modern vocabulary," Mr Noreen said. "We're trying to understand and letthat permeate the projects." Ile said contemporary architects faced a hurdlelocallyin countering the New Urbanism, a"movement that promotes: traditional low-rise build- ings and arguea that signature archi- tecture should be reserved for civic buildings. Two leading founders of the movement, the partners Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, are based in Miami Mr. Duany saidthe new architects SUBMITTED INTO THE PUBLIC RECORD FOR ITEM ez-3 ON 02adao . on the scene were "capable of decent urban;. outcomes." But according to Mr. Norten, the New Urbanists "feel totaiy;threatened, by all of this and are trying. to set up, a resistance. ' the city is pushing back, he said. 'lj ,atMiami comun. underfeeristthands its capacityasaai tom: be anity American modern city," he added. Jim DeFede, a local television news commentator, suggested that Miami l now relished the attention it could draw by setting its architectur- al sightshigh. "Clearly Mfamiatillhasan.inferi- ority complex,": he said. "Miami so desperately wants co be viewed as a groseat oily- as a capital of the Amen- I c" Craig Robins, president of real es- tate development company. Dacra, which helped rejuvenate Miami's Design District, said it wasn't that the city had once preferred "less en- lightened architecture," but that peo- ple had simply decided that good: ar- chltectttre was important. "The shift is inhere that contemporary design is mote: and more seen as worthwhile, SO the extra effort or expense that's required is more justified," he said. Accomplished contemporary ar- chitecture is not new to Miami. The high -profile firm Arquitectonica has been active in the city for more than. 20 years and recently completed the city's new Federal. Courthouse, two limestone towers connected by a curving glass prism in which the. Public circulates or gathers to wait. Ten MuseumPark, a 50-story crystalline tower on Biscayne Boule- vard designed by Chad Oppenheim, a young local architect, has also crest- ed excitement "It: proved that 'archi- tecture is a draw into areas that are blighted," Mr. Oppenheim. said. The sense that art and architec- ture can be a major lure is not lost on Robert Wennett, the developer for Herzog & de Meuron's LincolnRoad building and for another mixed -use project in Miami Beach. "Your tourism base is not solely to go the beach, Mr. Wennett said. "Cultural tourism is extremely inn portant " People win -come to see the build- ings," he said. /)/__ nA/_ 1 ...., 2—OG—O�oo