May is Miami Museum Month, and what better way to create buzz than with beautiful women and art. On the second Saturday of May, over 20 Miami Museum Month ladies, donning white bikinis, roamed the streets of Wynwood Art District during the area’s Wynwood Art Walk.

The ladies, with beach towels in hand, sat at one of the area’s hot spots, Wynwood Walls. They concentrated on the various art before a public audience, who were quickly snapping photos and discussing Miami Museum Month.

Only in Miami!

Ancient Spanish Monastery

Art Center South Florida

Bakehouse Art Complex

Bass Museum of Art

Coral Gables Museum

Dezer Collection Automobile Museum

Gold Coast Railroad Museum

The Haitian Heritage Museum

History Miami

Holocaust Memorial of Miami Beach

Jewish Museum of Florida

Lowe Art Museum

Miami Art Museum

Miami Beach Botanical Garden

Miami Children’s Museum

Miami Science Museum

Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)

The Patricia and Philip Frost Art Museum

Wings Over Miami Air Museum

The Wolfsonian – FIU

World Erotic Art Museum
 

Cabin Fever is known for its contemporary design, and ships prefab
houses and cabins across the US and Caribbean.  RSVP at
cabinfeverprefab@gmail.com or 305 960 7983, and please fwd to your
groups and contacts.

From Schwartz Media Strategies:

Tuesday, May 15, at 5:45 pm
1450 Brickell Avenue, 5th Floor
(parking garage access located on SW 15th Rd.)
Miami is hot right now and it isn’t just the weather. Investors from all corners of the globe are flocking to the Magic City to capitalize on the quality of our assets and attractiveness of our location.

Join us for an evening of cocktails and conversation as leading experts discuss how Miami has been catapulted onto the international stage and how this is fueling our City’s emergence as an international destination for visitors, residents, and commerce.

The event is free for invited guests, but seating is limited. Registration is required.
Please RSVP to rsvp@brickellhouse.com by May 11 to reserve your space.

Although this video was taken on a previous day, the effect is still the same.

In thrilling fashion, the Miami Marlins beat the Diamondbacks on a hit down left field by Hanley Ramirez in extra innings, giving the Fish a hard fought victory, ending with a shaving cream pie in Ramirez’ face.

I have been to several ballparks in the course of my travels.  Some good, like Wrigley Field and Fenway, others not so good.  It is tricky when it comes to ballpark design.  The stadiums that are considered a success are ones that are influenced by the urban context and infrastructure around them.  Unlike football and basketball, baseball does not have a standard field dimension which creates interesting and unique conditions.  One could make the argument that a baseball stadium should just fit into the grid of a city, rather than leveling existing blocks or laying out in the middle of suburbia.  An example of this type is a Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City which sits on sea of surface parking.  The stadium is several miles away from the downtown core,  it has no relationship to the urban context and as a result creates regulated dimensions for a sport that prides itself of on the diversity of their home fields.  Meanwhile,  Oriole Park at Camden Yards is a more positive example and the first ballpark to begin the move away from the suburbs.  That project designed by Populous (the same firm that did the Marlin’s park) is built on the city’s old rail yards, and adapts the existing infrastructure rather than knocking it all down.  There is also activity planned around the park, so after or before games people have somewhere to go rather than sit in traffic.

The new Marlins park is definitely an upgrade over Joe Robbie, Landshark, I mean Dolphin Stadium, or whatever they’re calling it these days.  Plenty of sight lines to the field itself allows you to watch the game from pretty much anywhere in the stadium.  From an urban stand point, it’s not the best situation as it buffers itself from the surrounding neighborhood thanks to parking garages and ample setbacks.  Thankfully it is not surrounded by a vast parking lot that stretches out into infinity.  Finally, I know that my friends over at TransitMiami have their opinions on getting to the ballpark, but my colleagues and I took a quick Metrorail ride down to Civic Center, jumped on a free City of Miami Trolley (they’re new by the way) and we were at the stadium relatively quickly.  Of course, there was traffic for the poor suckers that decided to drive.

I would have to give it my stamp of approval. Okay, perhaps a B+.  It still looks like “the mothership has landed” scenario in the Little Havana neighborhood, but without being too critical, good times can still be had at the Marlins Ballpark.  Enjoy the slideshow.

France and Florida : two perspectives on the preservation of Modernist Architecture in comparison

Tuesday May 1 • 6:30pm

France and the United States have different views on heritage preservation. The conference will highlight the challenges of preserving historical buildings and in particular of 20th century architecture. The speakers’ presentations will be based on specific cases, like the documentation experience of Docomomo, or the struggle for the protection of the Marine Stadium and the Art Deco District in Miami or the “Villa Savoye”, in Poissy (France), a building considered to be Le Corbusier’s manifesto on new architecture.

THE VILLA SAVOYE (FRANCE)
FROM A COUNTRY SIDE HOUSE TO A MODERN MOVEMENT ICONE
by Stéphanie Celle
French state architect and urbanist in chief, conservator of the National Monuments, Richard Morris Hunt Prize 1998 for preservation architects

LINCOLN ROAD
FROM HISTORIC RETAIL STREET TO ICONIC URBAN PEDESTRIAN SPACE
by William Cary
assistant director of the Miami Beach Planning Department

MIAMI MARINE STADIUM
SAVING A MODERN ICON
by Jorge Hernandez
Professor, University of Miami School of Architecture, Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees, National Trust for Historic Preservation and co-Founders of the Friends of Miami Marine Stadium

DOCOMOMO
DOCUMENTING AND CONSERVING THE MODERN
by Jean-François Lejeune
professor, University of Miami School of Architecture
Director of graduate studies, founding member of Docomomo-US/Florida

Roundtable in English
moderated by
Flaminia Gennari
chief curator Vizcaya Museum and Gardens

$15 for the Alliance française members
$25 for non members

Wine and cheese will be served

with the support of

In collaboration with University of Miami, departement of architecture, Docomomo and Vizcaya Museum and Gardens.

Today marks the 95th birthday of modern architect, IM Pei.  Pei left his native China to study in the United States, but was not in tune with the Beaux-Arts teachings happening at the time; at one point he considered whether it would be better to practice engineering.  Rebelling against his classical training, Pei found inspiration with the leaders of the modern architecture movement, such as LeCorbusier, Walter Gropius, and Marcel Breuer.  Eventually, he began his own firm and in the span of over four decades he has produced some of the most iconic structures in the world:  The John F. Kennedy Library, The Louvre Pyramid, The East Building of the National Gallery of Art, The Bank of China Tower, The Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, and the Museum of Islamic Art.

We single out IM Pei today not just because of his prominence in the field, but also because of how he helped define the Miami skyline.  It has been known by many names, but the former CenTrust and Bank of America Tower goes by a simpler moniker these days; one that describes it best: The Miami Tower.  The Miami Tower stood long before The Four Season’s Hotel (currently the tallest building in Miami), The Icon, The Viceroy, and the AIA Florida nominated Espirito Santo Plaza reshaped Brickell to what it is today.  The Miami Tower stood long before 50 Biscayne, The Vizcayne, and Ten Museum Park were erected to create a wall of skyscrapers along Biscayne Boulevard.  Never has it been the tallest building in Miami, nor the first skyscraper constructed, The Miami Tower has nevertheless been the most visible even as it sits far from the boulevard and bay.  Take a night flight out of Miami International Airport, and no building will be easier to spot than the one designed by IM Pei. Watch a helicopter fly over on one of the shows or movies filmed here, and you’ll see it instantly.

The building’s interior is just as interesting, playing host to some unique features.  It has an auditorium, a sports club, the distinction of having Miami’s metromover transit system run right through it, and a sky lobby that gives off fantastic views of the city.  The decadent interiors are clad in a green and white marble, which is very much of the time period when the building was constructed (the 1980′s).  The building does its very best at calling attention to downtown and the city itself.  Many of the current skyscrapers are marvels of engineering and construction, but do not have the same appeal.  Perhaps it is because the new towers today are too busy boasting their LEED rating, or the amount of steel and glass used in their creation, while The Miami Tower established an architectural and urban identity for Miami.

It is a guarantee that many more skyscrapers will be built in downtown, each one trying to outdo the next.  However, I doubt they will supplant the tower from its rightful place.  Miami is well known for being nocturnally active and having the famous,vibrant nightlife.  What better building to have as a symbol of this city than the one that shines brightest at night?  Happy birthday IM Pei, and Thank You, because in a city where many “big shot” architects have done some of their worst projects, you did one of your best.

For more information on the airport link visit: http://www.miamidade.gov/transit/improve_airport.asp