MIAMI PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
USA, MIAMI, 1994
A performing arts centre that combines the two unique programs of a concert hall and an opera house
In physics, the notion of critical mass indicates the point whereby accumulating mass, an object passes from one condition into another, more dynamic one. To conceive of the two components of the Dade County Performing Arts Center (opera and concert hall) each in their own individual site, would be to waste a unique historical opportunity for Miami to create a new, exciting whole that is much more than the sum of its parts. Not only would the separation itself cause many programmatic redundancies - in space mechanical plant, vertical transport, access demands - but by combining the two programs in a single building we introduce a number of important efficiencies, enormously extend its potential uses, and create a much more unique and memorable structure that makes a stronger statement about Miami’s present and future cultural potential. Hide
The building was sited on the Sears site. East-west through its center runs a high-rise technical zone that incorporates the Opera stagetower and the reverberation chamber of the concert Hall.
To reinforce the existing urban tissue those parts of the Building most active in the daytime are concentrated in the north in a profile that carefully mediates between the existing and the new. Black Box and Studio establish a direct relationship with 14th street. On the Biscayne Boulevard corner, the Burdines Building preserves a flavour of history. It is used for educational programs, functions and can also act as an entrance to the Concert Hall.
Faceted like jewels - one dark, the other light - the two auditoriums are directed to the south for maximum visibility from the sea, the highway and downtown.
So far the consultants have elaborated designs that guarantee acoustic and technical perfection, but the Opera and the Concert Hall are public buildings: it is our task to provide a setting that makes the experience of visiting an event. In the Paris Opéra, (the most successful precedent), the space reserved for foyer, lobby and grand staircase - the space for public display - exceeds that of the auditorium itself; in Miami, by joining the public areas reserved for the two individual auditoriums, we create a 3-dimensional "mixing chamber”, between them that will be an experience in itself. Negotiating the level differences playfully like the Guggenheim Museum, this continuous in-between-building organizes the two flows, but also turns the sum of visitors in a larger civic collective.
The bigger scale of the combined building not only eliminates waste - one system of elevators/escalators serves the two halls, one system of catering. It also creates diverse surfaces that are not mere dependencies of the two halls, but that can be used as "rooms” for more and more diverse functions such as fundraising, banqueting, etc. Below the auditoriums, our concept generates large scale spaces on street level for other cultural uses, to activate Biscayne Boulevard.
Urbanism
The siting of the building and the organization of the program aim to respect and reinforce the fragile urban context. By consolidating the two elements in a single block, we give a maximum impulse to the vigour of 14th street, reinforcing a vital connection to Overtown.
