The Transparent Wall
Out of Scale or Not, City Board Approves Proposed Design for Expanded New World Symphony Facility

“Everybody wanted to date Paul; I liked George.”

By Erik Bojnansky

After hearing arguments that any delays could derail the New World Symphony’s expansion project, the Miami Beach Design Review Board unanimously approved plans for a seven-story facility drawn up by a team led by famed architect Frank Gehry.

The designs were passed in spite of concerns from the Planning Department that the facility facing 17th Street was “overwhelming in terms of scale.”

“We are very happy,” said Craig Webb, a partner of the Los Angeles-based Gehry Partners, LLP.

The state-of-the-art performance and rehearsal facility will be built behind the teaching orchestra’s current base of operations, The Lincoln Theater, on top of a city-owned parking lot at 1672 Drexel Ave. The 50,000-square-foot project is budgeted at $155 million and will be paid for through private donations as well as a pledged $15 million from the city of Miami Beach (once the project exceeds $135 million). The city of Miami Beach is also giving the land to the NWS and contributing $21 million for a related urban park and $15 million for a garage.

Also needed to make the project happen is $30 million from Miami-Dade County. NWS representatives are meeting with county officials and hope to get the request on the Miami-Dade agenda in the next two months, said Grant Stevens, project manager and vice president of the Atlanta-based real estate development company Hines.

And if the county grant doesn’t happen? “I’m sure NWS and city commissioners would have to meet again,” Stevens said.

The subject: whether the monetary difference would have to come from more private donations or the city of Miami Beach.

Assuming the county allocates the $30 million to NWS, workshops will be held on the look of an anticipated Frank Gehry-designed urban park, as well as a design scheme for a garage, Stevens said.

The main purpose of the future performance facility is to serve the acoustic needs of the orchestra. After listening to the NWS play in New York’s Carnegie Hall, it became obvious how inadequate the circa-1936 Lincoln Theater was for the orchestra, Webb said.

At the same time, Webb insisted that the virtually transparent, glazed design of the new theater would enhance the area and fit in with the eventual urban park.

The future facility “is defined by a large volumetric atrium” five stories tall in its center. “The elevations are a reflection of the interior floor plan and are highlighted by a large glass curtain wall on the east elevation, which allows complete visibility of the cube-like forms on the interior,” stated a staff report from Jorge Gomez. “A large projection screen is built into the northern part of this elevation. The south and west sides of the structure are composed of an array of glass curtain wall, punctured masonry openings and stucco, and the north side of the building is largely CBS stucco, with a large rectangular cut-out and projecting canopy facing 17th Street.”

The staff report is generally complimentary, declaring that the NWS “has the potential to be a very iconic structure” and is “the type of high-caliber urban public project that would best suit what is currently a very unappealing use of prime urban land.”

However, the report is critical of the “northern portion” on 17th Street, which it described as a “large solid wall (which tops off at 75 feet from the sidewalk and is 142 feet long)” and “is somewhat overwhelming in relation to the street and sidewalk.” The “northern portion” is cited by the Planning Department as the reason eight out of 14 design review criteria are “not satisfied.”

“As more and more pedestrians utilize 17th Street, the need to design and construct new buildings that are sensitive to a more low scale streetscape becomes paramount,” the report stated. “Indeed, the previous mistakes made with regard to public and institutional buildings fronting 17th Street and Lincoln Road side streets cannot be repeated.”

Webb disagreed. The City Commission approved the size and scale of the performance space, he said, and there were buildings of various sizes, some as tall as 10 stories, along 17th Street, he pointed out.

Neisen Kasdin, a former Miami Beach mayor and an attorney representing NWS, urged the DRB to allow the project to move forward as it is, stating that the nonprofit cultural organization “cannot afford a continuation.”

“Move forward with none of the conditions?” asked DRB member Gabrielle Redfern. To do so would mean completely ignoring the concerns of city planners, said Redfern, who called the Gehry design “a box.”

Other DRB members had less of a problem with the proposed look. DRB member Clotilde Luce liked the “wave shape” and said the structure gives a “play of shadow and light.” She admitted her views might not match others’ and made a comparison to the 1960s rock group, The Beatles: “Everybody wanted to date Paul; I liked George.”

DRB member Michael Steffens was more worried about how a glass wall would survive hurricane-prone Florida. Webb replied all materials being used, including sheet metal, are being tested to stringent hurricane standards.

Webb later testified that the Florida environment was a reality the design team knew they could not ignore. During one brainstorm session they wanted to build a glass box that would sink underground. Unfortunately, since the Sunshine State is at sea level, this was impossible, he said.

The DRB ultimately approved a motion declaring that Gehry’s team would not have to redesign the “northern portion.”

Comments? E-mail erik@miamisunpost.com.