Enjoy these shots I took last week of the dreadful urbanism being created by these massive waste of taxpayer money parking garages.
What a waste of economic development opportunity for the neighborhood and lost tax revenue for the city. Could have been a great urban building, but who would want to invest next to this?
Brutal pedestrian frontage along NW 3 street. Townhouses are slated to line this frontage....cant wait to see what those look like.
Don't expect a different view on opening day - no way to put lipstick on this pig.
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Looks like some soviet-era buildings I saw in former parts of East Germany…
wow, Gabriel. That is EXACTLY what I was going to say…
Sadly does look like Soviet buildings… So frustrating.
Or a federal prison..
who designed this? which architect was low enough to bring this monstrosity into being?
the architecture firm is Leo A Daly Co.
http://www.leoadaly.com/
Seriously – what was the point of building a shiny glass and steel stadium if we were going to surround it with these cheap concrete bunkers?
The purpose of building these hideous lots around the ball park is to simply keep the paying customers in and the tresspassers out. Lets face it, the area still does have a high crime rate. There is no way you’re going to have individuals pay for premium seats and expect them to feel unsafe walking to their cars at 10:00pm. The layout of these buildings makes it easier for security to keep unwanted people off of the property. Think of this as a prison (in reverse).
While I agree with your response as a likely outcome – the perception of what makes a neighborhood “safe” and what doesn’t is completely misconstrued (Not by you, but by that common argument).
The security aspect of your comment really irks me (once again, not by you but by that common argument) – this is PUBLIC property and should remain as such. I can certainly see people being escorted off the property when exercising their right to peaceful assembly, free speech, or photography. This is what leads me to criticize much of the “urban” development in Miami – its faux urbanism in my eyes if the public spaces (e.g. Plazas, parks, sidewalks) are privately maintained. In these spaces, you’ll never see a homeless person, a person exercising their right to preach or distribute pamphlets, or any of the other features which define urban spaces. The landowner always claims the interest of “public safety” but some of the most desirable (e.g. pricey), urban communities across the US have wonderful plazas and sidewalks filled with people from all walks of life. You think you’ll ever see New York’s Naked Cowboy walking the sidewalks of Midtown Miami or the Marilyn Monroe / Elvis Impersonators who work along the Hollywood walk of Fame in Mary Brickell Village? Nope. They’ll be booted out by some rent-a-cop faster than you can imagine…
A perfect case study of this will be an upcoming article I am working on that profiles the new Ballpark of the Washington Nationals.
It’s now obvious that the Marlins are doing everything possible to make people forget where they are, rather than benefiting the area with good urbanism. The Soviet bunkers, the armored shield dome itself, the whole project looks like it’s preparing for war on Little Havana.
Gabriel, you are so right. Miami Dade County has always had a sort of prejudiced-/fear-driven urban planning development (if one could call it that). Even Lincoln Road is a joke because it is a tourist trap. Most locals, especially in this downgraded economy, can’t afford most of the crap being sold on the strip. Most of these areas are “made up”. They don’t reflect community needs. One can’t help but feel that many of these zones are implemented to provide quick-money-making schemes for developers.
Italian Rationalism
–lol!
I thought at one point there was talk of these parking garages being mixed use buildings with retail space on the first floor to try and create a more town-like pedestrian-friendly environment. I don’t remember anyone signing up for these gigantic concrete blocks…
Instead of improving the lives and property values in Little Havana, these garages make the neighborhood look like a ghetto. It infuriates me that they would build this in a neighborhood that was promised the ballpark as a huge revitalization element that would help Little Havana grow and improve. All lies. I’m sick of it!
Not quite related, but I wanted to get the word out on an important cause to increase park acreage in Brickell. See here and please join the cause: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brickell-Green-Space/128164197278008?sk=app_106171216118819
I would envite you to go take some new pictures and see how the garages have been enhanced. First I would argue adding ground floor retail and proposed residential liner facing Little Havanna is better than any other sports stadium in Florida. Further openings and vistas to the stadium were left open and unlike the orange bowl the street grid will be reopened. The large plaza in the front will be an open park for the entire community and the little league baseball field- overflow parking will inspire young inner city kids to play ball. This city needs to wake up, this project is on budget, does not cost millions in subsidies like the stadium. Gov’t could have hired Zyscovich or Arquitectonica to create a megablock on steroids- (but it would have glass and steel) or we can create simple affordable urbanism on the street grid. How many bike parking spaces does any other stadium garage have- this one has over 100. Let’s see if you use it.
The only thing we need is some additional transit- transit miami. Help us get the transit for the money saved on the garage.
I will definitely go check it out, however, given the scale of this building and the poor quality of the garages, i doubt my mind will change. The massing and site design problems are what they are, and are not likely to change the more the project nears completion. I would also argue that there is a difference between simple – and functional – urbansim and the simplistic and crude urbanism being attempted here. Simply putting ground level uses in select parts of a parking garage is different from making a mixed use urban building that happens to have parking in it.
How many parking garages have a hundred bike parking spaces? not many in Miami, but who cares? the parking garages are a waste of money and valuable urban land.
“Help us get the transit for the money saved on the garage” Laughable. The money that was wasted on the garages should have been spent on transit serving both the stadium and surrounding community. The crumbs leftover from the garage construction are hardly enough to fund a bus to the stadium, much less real transit. The excessive parking at the stadium is the single most moronic thing about the building. rather than take advantage of the transit demand created by the stadium, our leaders decided instead to further subsidize our autocentric car culture.
I am so tired of the argument that since this is not as bad as other projects that we should be happy. Since when is mediocrity our best option?
PS. The large ‘plaza’ you mention under the retractable roof is more like leftover space versus a planned moment in our urban grid. Similarly, the baseball field/overflow parking is nothing more than leftover space. Simple and affordable urbanism is built around the notion of streets and plazas as areas of shared space. this stadium and garages were plopped down on the site, and have little respect or acknowledgement of the public realm.