Archinect - News

The 11 most threatened modern sites across the U.S.

2022-04-29T15:44:00-04:00

In response to the recent surprise demolition of Marcel Breuer’s Geller I house on Long Island, modernist conservation group Docomomo US has released its first-ever list of the 11 most threatened modern sites in the United States.

Working on the advice of its chapter members, the group selected 11 sites across the country in danger of seeing the same fate as Breuer’s first post-war residential project beginning with Miami’s Marine Stadium, which is still currently awaiting word on a publicly-funded restoration effort.

Washington state was a popular location, with Space Needle architect John Graham Jr.’s Lloyd Center and the Weyerhaeuser International Headquarters both making the list.

Massachusetts is also well-represented with the “Long House” prototype cotta...

The fate of Miami's Marine Stadium hangs in the balance after a delayed vote on preservation funds

2022-03-10T16:06:00-05:00

Despite an illustrious history, the prized structure on Virginia Key has sat vacant since Hurricane Andrew swept through the city in 1992. It now faces an uncertain future as city commissioners will soon decide whether to allocate $61.2 million in revenue-bond financing for the building’s restoration.

The Miami City Commission has since moved to defer the planned February 24th vote until late May after Commissioner Joe Carollo urged City Manager Art Noriega to reconsider the mounting financial impacts caused by increasingly costly restoration, which centers around reestablishing its original use as a concert venue.

Previously on Archinect: Rescue Plan for a Marooned Miami Stadium. Photo: Ken Hayden/Saving Places.

“I have been asking for the administration to give me a study to show how much we’re going to be losing, or if they think we’re going to make money, how much are we going to make, in a five-year projection. Nobody will give me that,” the commissioner said at the hearing. “It’s not that we don’t want to look back and enjoy history, but you can’t bring everything back again.”

Previously on Archinect: Architect of famed Miami Marine Stadium, Hilario Candela passes away at 87. Photo: Ken Hayden.

Miami had previously approved $45 million in now-expired funding for a restorati...

Architect of famed Miami Marine Stadium, Hilario Candela passes away at 87

2022-01-21T11:57:00-05:00

"Candela believed the campus buildings and the spaces between them were equally important. He described the campus master plans as “a small city of interconnected geometric masses and urban plazas,” and composed the buildings around structural systems of towering columns and cantilevers, connected by covered walkways."

Cuban American architect Hilario Candela passed away this week at the age of 87 due to complications with Covid-19. With his partner, Peter Spillis, who passed last year in March, the duo were pioneers in the development of Miami's architectural scene with their eponymous firm Spillis & Candela. But at the young age of 28, Candela created what will surely be remembered as his masterpiece; a poured concrete stadium with a sweeping geometric cantilevered roof known as the Miami Marine Stadium. Although the stadium sits idle today waiting for restoration efforts, it was once home to speed boat races, concerts, and many other activities along the waterfront at its location in Key Biscayne. The impressive structure was considered the longest cantilever in the world at the time of its creation, which Candela created in order for all 6000 plus seats to get a glimpse of the water and downtown Miami skyline. It has since been designated as a National Treasure from the National Trust of ...

Editor's Picks #396

2014-12-05T14:37:00-05:00

Beth Mosenthal penned an Op-Ed: Response to Michael Kimmelman's Critique of 1 WTC. She writes "I can only imagine the list of priorities that 1 World Trade entailed, but am still celebratory of the feat that it was realized despite perhaps the greatest obstacles any project could possibly have—fear and memory".

Ken Koense chose to respectfully disagree with her "The building is a touchstone for the future of large scale bunker buildings in America...which will certainly preclude the kinds of mixed use that Kimmelman's real critique addressed...Thousands died, two wars waged, but we've got our post card view, our symbol, our icon, our Freedom Tower. How picturesque". Similarly Krimson struggles "to overlook the blatant closed off nature of the project".

Plus, the latest Showcase: features Sparrenburg Visitor Center by Max Dudler, a "brutalist, rammed concrete" addition to a historic castle/fortress.

News

Paul Katz, who as president and managing principal of KPF was the mastermind of m...

Rescue Plan for a Marooned Miami Stadium

2014-11-26T13:49:00-05:00

In a young city predisposed to wrecking and rebuilding, impressive works of architecture can sometimes be discarded as effortlessly as last year’s runway accessories. But Miami Marine Stadium, a bold structure on Biscayne Bay that sought to jolt the city into the future back in 1963, may prove a rare, stubborn exception. Abandoned and shuttered more than two decades ago, the Modernist stadium is in the midst of a turbulent, nearly seven-year effort by a nonprofit group [...].

Winners of Modernism in America Awards renew value of modern architecture

2014-02-27T14:05:00-05:00

The Modernism in America Awards have announced this year's winners. The national awards program highlights the documentation, preservation and re-use of modern buildings, structures and landscapes in the U.S. or U.S. territory [...] One Award of Excellence was given in the categories Design, Advocacy, and Inventory/Survey. Five Citations of Merit were also awarded. Winners will receive their prizes during the Docomomo US National Symposium on March 13-15, 2014 in Houston, Texas.

(Pictured above) Design Award of Excellence: Furnace Creek Visitor Center at Death Valley National Park

Advocacy Award of Excellence: Peavey Plaza

Survey Award of Excellence: Curating the City: Modern Architecture in L.A. Website

Design Citation of Merit: The Arboretum (formerly the Garden Grove Community Church)

Advocacy Citation of Merit: Miami Marine Stadium

Design Citation of Merit: Stillman and Huvelle Houses, Litchfield, CT

Design Citation of Merit: Trenton Bath House and Day Camp Pavilions

Survey Citation of Merit: North Carolina Modernist Houses, Inc.

Find more on Bustler.

Winners of the 2011 DawnTown Miami Floating Stage Competition

2011-05-04T13:25:00-04:00

Five winners have just been announced at the 2011 edition of DawnTown Miami. The annual architecture ideas competition seeks to bring creative, innovative, and inspiring new solutions to Downtown Miami and to the City of Miami at large.

Now in its fourth year, DawnTown partnered with a local historic preservation group to help bring prominence to an early piece of Miami's modern architecture period. The competition invited designers to envision a complimenting structure to the Miami Marine Stadium, aiming to make it a great event space once again -- paired with a new Floating Stage.