The Miami Design District is quickly becoming an area known for its cutting-edge fashion, art, design, and culture. Popular luxury brands such as Gucci, Tom Ford, and Louis Vuitton have recently set up shop in the continually growing neighborhood, bustling with foot traffic buzzing in and out of everything from art galleries to upscale jewelry stores to celebrity-chef restaurants. It's a hot place to be and an area that's nearly outgrowing itself in terms of people trying to visit such a newly desirable location.
In Miami, with lots of people comes lots of cars, and in true Design District fashion, there will soon be one of the craziest-looking parking garages ever built. That's right: a statement-making, conversation-starting, eye-catching parking garage. Welcome to the Design District, everyone.
The seven-story, 800-car garage — located on the corner of NE First Avenue and NE 41st Street — will feature a mixture of splashy and sleek work by five world-class architects. The parking rates will be in line with the standard neighborhood prices, which start at $3 for every four hours.
Miami Design District developer and CEO of Dacra, Craig Robins, along with L Catterton Real Estate, commissioned architect and curator Terence Riley to develop the concept.
Architects and artists who contributed to the finished product are WORKac, J. Mayer H., Clavel Arquitectos, Nicolas Buffe, and Riley’s own architectural firm, K/R (Keenen/Riley).
All participating architects who were assigned an area of the project were given free rein to create fully individual designs, regardless of what their counterparts were designing. The result of mixing and matching unrelated works to create one spectacular piece is meant to be a unique and modern architectural version of the Exquisite Corpse, an artistic technique in which a collection of words or images is assembled to build one work. Each of the five façades on the parking structure will feature custom lighting designed by the London-based firm Speirs + Major, ensuring that Museum Garage has a compelling presence at night as well as during the day.
The parking garage is set to open to the public at the end of this month. You're free to take in its beauty now, though.
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This article was written by Ryan Yousefi, and was published in the New Times.