MIAMI BEACH SOUNDSCAPEURBAN DESIGN CASE STUDY

ANKITA KHANTE | BARSHA AMARENDRA | SHIVANGI NEGI

BACKGROUND Frank Gehry’s New World

Symphony failed to attract the young crowd of Miami, and failed to be the cultural center that it initially promised to be.

The site had Frank Gehry’s white Art Deco building in the center with parking on both the sides, reducing the beauty attached to the space.

The Miami City Center lacked an open green space where people could meet and spend quality time together.

ISSUES AND CONCERNS

The redevelopment plan had to play a counter part to Frank Gehry’s unclad and reposed Music School. It had to complement the architect Frank Gehry’s creation of purist Art Deco style.

The design had to be in context with the vibrant culture of the city of Miami and serve as an open and inviting gathering space.

The climatic considerations of providing shade and choosing foliage for the same was a main concern for the design program.

The space had to be more of soft-scape than hard paved surfaces due to the tropical climate of Miami and to balance the concrete of the building.

ABOUT PROJECTLocation: Washington Ave, Florida

Urban Designers:West 8 urban design & landscape architecture

Project Year: 2011

Project Area: 2.5 acre (1 hectare)

Cost : $10 million

Time Taken: 2 years

Material: Titanium forms, Gavanized Steel,White Stucco, Concrete , Mosaic, Aluminum,Bougainvillea, Palm Trees, Carpet grass.

Awards:2015 ASLA New York Chapter Honor Award2012 AIA Institute Honor Award for Regional and Urban Design2012 Excellence in Structural Engineering Award

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To establish a new precedent for parks in the City of Miami Beach. To respond to site-specific conditions, context and program for this public space to feel

‘green’ and more like a park. To reflect the spirit and vitality of Miami Beach and support a multitude of day and night

uses, either under the shade of the trees or a starlit sky. Main goal of the ambitious project: to add to the existing building in attracting the younger

generations to the world of classical music. “It’s not meant to scream out in the neighbourhood. The strategy behind the design is to lure in the community, especially those who might be put off by classical music"

VISION

“ We hoped to give Lincoln Park [in Miami Beach] a sense that it is a place where people can meet. One of the simple tools to do that was to deliver shade where people could sit in

daytime to enjoy ocean breezes. At night, the park will have gigantic outdoor video projections on the wall of the New World Symphony. People will sit there like in a forest at

sunset when the orange of the sun illuminates everything in a surreal way.-Adriaan Geuze, founding partner and design director of West 8

“The Park was to be like poetry and music, to be experienced by the public, complementing the initial vision of Frank Gehry and New World Symphony Commission to attract people to the richness of music. The park was supposed to be a place where you can dream about a

non-realistic, non-time-related world.” -Valley Crest, New World Symphony Commission

“The space promises to enrich the public spaces of Miami and add a new green dimension to the re-development plan for the city center that would give us a space to relax , rejuvenate

and reconnect with ourselves and each other.”- Localities of Miami city

DESIGN ELEMENTSUNIQUE FEATURES THAT EXPRESS THE VISION BEHIND THE PROJECT

The soft, undulating topography is reinforced visually by white concrete mosaic of meandering pathways, and white concrete seating walls that providing options for informal seating.

The seating walls are broken up by smooth egg shaped moulds and come flush with an undulating lawn to add depth and intrigue to the flat South Florida landscape.

These two critical elements of the park design allow Miami Beach Soundscape to convey the illusion of a park larger than its humble inherent size.

Miami Beach’s Art Deco style stucco concrete is evident in the curvature and abstract forms of Gehry’s architecture and is complemented by these design elements.

PATHWAYS & SEATING

Several pergolas embrace the park edges; their shape inspired by the puffy cumulous clouds inherent in South Florida’s tropical climate.

The hand-fabricated painted aluminium structures not only provide shade but will support the spectacular blooms of bougainvillea vines; highlighting a threshold of colour at the parks points of entry.

Although the bougainvillea are yet to fill out their horn shaped pergolas, this leaves the shadowy web to create patterns on the entry plaza concrete.

PERGOLAS

WALL CASTS The projection wall of the

adjacent Symphony Hall building is an ideal ‘canvas’ for video projection artists.

West 8 has designed a projection tower and ‘Ballet Bar’ to house the extensive multimedia equipment provided within the park. These are all imbibed as architectural elements to the park.

This allows an ever-changing exhibit that would occur outside the confines of a traditional museum experience.

DESIGN PRINCIPLES

A Family of architectural elements had to be positioned in a way that was technically precise to meet desired sound quality objectives but also integrate it sensitively into the landscape.

The principles of design adopted as such was based on an integrated space creation and circulation amidst these park design elements.

Integration principles of design elements.

SITE PLAN

CIRCULATION Giant steel pergolas with bright pink

bougainvillea act as place markers that draw the user in on three sides.

To give a feeling of open and inviting space, the site has been left without marking any boundary with fences.

In plan, the pathways immediately strike an artistic cord due to its organic nature , but it gives the concerns of its walkability with the sporadic pathways.

A multitude of trails jet into the artificially created palm forest.

The jagged main pathways allow natural walking patterns with seats lines along them.

SPACE CREATION

The Montgomery Palm, supplies dappled shade all over the park while not compromising visibility with their slender tall trunks.

These ‘Veils’ of palm thus conceal and reveal views further reinforcing the experience of being within an oasis that is much larger.

In other areas, sculptural oak tree groupings provide full shade and a more private lawn seating area.

Aside from being a foyer and plaza space for the New World Symphony, the park provides outdoor screening of musical and movie events with a state-of-the-art projector and acoustic ‘ballet bars’. The bars contain speakers and wiring and also, demarcate the main amphitheatre lawn.

IMPLEMENTATION The design of the park is based

on series of overlapping form s inspired by similar forms within Gehry’s building.

The result is distinct matrix of varied sized paths that outline a patchwork of lawn areas. Dense planting of palm trees is organized to reinforce , but not strictly mimic the complex ground pattern.

Bougainvillea covered metal pergolas echo the trees and denote primary entrance to the park.

DESIGN ISSUES

The open air movie and concert screening at night leads to disruption of peaceful night time slumber.

The 24x7 design structure usability of the park creates an issue with cleaning and maintenance as there is no specific time for it.

During clashes of timing between symphony and park wall cast screening, parking is an issue as these are main arterial roads on all four sides.

Due to the tropical climate of Miami with unpredictable rains, shelter from rains becomes necessary. However, the soundscape provides only shade from the tropical sun but no shelter from rains.

During the monsoon time when the grass is wet, it becomes difficult to sit on the grass and watch movies as there is no other seating provided for it.

OVERALL DESIGN PROPOSAL- QUANTITATIVE A relationship that defines the building as a closed

container in direct opposition to the park; which defines all the elements of dynamics and static movement within its confines.

During the day the park works as a transitory space in the city, interconnecting all of the adjacent streets. The design of the pedestrian circulation is related with the interior of the theater as a mirrored relationship, but the main feature, which links the structure with the park, is the projection that happens in the NWS main facade.

It suddenly transforms the 7,000 square foot blank wall into a window inside the theater, revealing the performance happening in its interior; technology, as linking of program.

OVERALL DESIGN PROPOSAL- QUANTITATIVE

Consequently the function of the park shifts from an active transitory area to a static voyeuristic area, independent from the park’s architecture and landscape.

It invites an organic distribution pattern of participants that seat freely, making use of the irregular green areas left while circulation paths are lay inactive. Chairs, blankets, groups and couples create a very noticeable boundary between private and public space relationships.

The park becomes an extension of people’s living room’s, creating a virtual extension of private space into public space.

MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES The Miami Soundscape runs an online portal where

localities get updated on the latest schedules of screening movies, and music concerts.

In coordination with the New World Symphony Commission they organize America’s orchestral academy becoming cultural icon in center of Miami beach.

The space is used for joggers and walkers in the early morning and in the evenings and can be freely accessed .

The management committee hosts weekend laughter therapy sessions and under the sun art and music classes to the young kids, making it a source and destination for creativity and inspiration.

FINANCE AND MAINTENANCE

The finance for the project came from the Miami beach commission, an autonomous body for the maintenance of public spaces in Miami.

The maintenance of the completed project is done by the New World Symphony, the adjacent building. All shows are organised in sync with this committee.

The cleaning of the movie/outdoor concert area is done as part of the public awareness initiation, wherein, the crowd is supposed to clean up the space they used before they leave. Due to the participatory nature, it leads to an attachment for the space apart from saving on the budget.

DESIGN OUTCOME (PERFORMANCE)- QUALITATIVE

Since opening of the park it has seen incredible attendance and success in the community. During the day it is filled with locals and visitors eating lunch, enjoying the shade, playing

with children and admiring the building. After the dark the park is transformed into spectacle of video, art, music, and film.

Circulation traffic slows around the park creating on more node of events. During the Wall Cast event the energy of the city is fragmented and in its changes the

relationship with the city’s inhabitants. People walking in Lincoln Road, the adjacent street mall, get sidetracked and almost “funneled” into the park.

The synergy is so obvious, present and felt that even official vehicles such as Police and Fire Rescues turn off the sirens of their vehicles. It creates a perfect atmosphere between the public space and the rest of the city.

DESIGN OUTCOME (PERFORMANCE)- QUALITATIVE

The project was listed as one of the top 10 in “ Best Outdoor Movie Theaters” by Travel- Leisure

Magazine in America.