Photo: Downtown Miami’s Cultural Center, Planned To Be Demolished

A photo shows the Miami-Dade Cultural Center, which is expected to be demolished as part of downtown Miami’s Metrocenter redevelopment.

The new Miami-Dade civil courthouse tower can be seen rising in the background.

The Cultural Center was completed in 1983, with a controversial design that is reminiscent of a fortress. In addition to being pedestrian unfriendly, it is said to have subpar finishes.

It was designed by architect Philip Johnson.

The Metrocenter plan includes multiple county-controlled properties in the area. In total, 23.7 million square foot could be developed.

A new history museum and library would be built as part of the plan, replacing the existing facilities in the Cultural Center.

 

Conceptual renderings of Metrocenter:


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Anonymous
4 months ago

The sooner the better…its filled with people smoking weed and sleeping in the elevated corridor next to the library entrance, which acts like a hidden drug den.

Anonymous
4 months ago

We need a giant well maintained Central Park with water features and a pond to break up all the concrete blight and make it more attractive livable neighborhood.

Anonymous
4 months ago

Add canals, expand the river, and turn this area into a safe tropical island, maybe it can even have drainage system for flood waters.

Not Anonymous
4 months ago

that might be a tad… impossible, but a nice idea if it is ever realized

Anonymous
4 months ago

Thank you. I don’t see it being impossible; I see it being practical. Developers build entire canal systems in suburbs around Florida, where the value add is a fraction of what the value add would be for this concrete part of Miami in need of natural rejuvenation.

Anonymous
4 months ago

Look at Wilton manor (not like your standard island, but a manmade canal that wraps around the area) – it would keep homeless from wondering around and raise values, with more walkable waterfront trails. Also would be great for ferries and kayaking.

Philip Junot
4 months ago

The best way to keep homeless away from our city is using landscaping with pointy plants, poison Ivy, cactus and keep the trash containers tops looked that only the waist management clean team can open to change trash bags

Anonymous
4 months ago

Nah, Wilton Manors keeps the homeless away by blaring 90s dance music, and with the moat guarded by giant foam cannons.

Anonymous
4 months ago

What’s wrong with 90s dance music? Id love to hear more Spice Girls in this area and less hostile noise.

Anonymous
4 months ago

Yas! More Spice Girls, less Bad Bunny.

Anonymous
4 months ago

Colors of the world, spice up your life 🎶 🌶️ if you want to get with me, you got to get wit my friends 🏙️ ✌️

Socretes
4 months ago

Yeah….WE NEED a lazy river that can circulate the CBD. But it can’t have the bad kind of chlorine….the taxpayers from everywhere else should pay for the bestest most greenestest water treatments ever!

OH! OH! and only bike paths for my lazy river. AND it has to have WiFi…..WiFi is a human right after all.

Reach Miami
4 months ago

This area (not me) needs something different of this scale, an unrecognizable transformation, not a redo on a larger cheaper scale. I think the Miami River offers unrealized value for investors, Miami and the County.

This is a once in a century opportunity for redevelopment, and maybe the the last one of this scale and reach in the Miami core (like the visionary 1896 Miami River channel dig that brought us then non-existent Brickell Key.)

If you ask a taxpayer, I bet they think this adds more value than the Miami arches that don’t have any structural utility, lawsuits against businesses, or contracts that don’t deliver results.

Anon
4 months ago

Go back to school.

Socretes
4 months ago

WE NEED
or
I WANT

Ninos
4 months ago

Sure gramps. We will make sure there is a ramp for you.

Florida Development Shows…
4 months ago

Start with a master planned human focused neighborhood plan of low rises, like City Place in WPb or Mary Brickell Village – build a culture and rebrand with beautification and amenities, the. Go vertical in five years. It’ll be more valuable and cost effective. Change the vibe, make a brand, And then go vertical

Azarius
4 months ago

Yes, I’m wondering how long is the bidding process and will there be a deadline for certain parts of this huge development to be developed. Plus we need the required housing it’ll add

SW30
4 months ago

The County said they’d pick a developer in early 2024. The chosen developer would have up to 24 months to start construction. But I didn’t see any mention of a hard deadline to actually complete any work. It’s mentioned that the full redevelopment project would likely take 12-15 years to complete.

Anonymous
4 months ago

Stephen Ross does amazing work in Florida. He has experience and track record to turn this around. Also Chetrit and JDS are involved closeby.

Upgrade
4 months ago

Good riddance. Get rid of this monstrosity and build a proper, civic-minded public library and history museum.

Anonymous
4 months ago

The question is, will the replacement actually be a proper-civic-minded public library and history museum, or an even more subpar box from Arquitectonica?

Socretes
4 months ago

As far as I know, Arquitectonica has never drawn anything worse than this Philip Johnson thing.

I’d put Brickell CitiCenter up against any urban retail/office/residential property in the United States, and I”ve only seen the renderings of their Asian and Middle Eastern projects. They also look fantastic.

Anonymous
4 months ago

While you added, demolish the new courthouse behind it.

Cbb
4 months ago

The building is a monster. It’s a perfect disaster.

Anonymous
4 months ago

It’s not going to last 40 years.

BDub
4 months ago

Don’t know what Miami ever did to Philip Johnson – tear it down.

Anon
4 months ago

Hit up Robert Stern for a world class public library. It should have been the Dyer Federal Building, but that ship has sailed.

Anonymous
4 months ago

Not if MDC sells/vacates it, and instead of doing an awful job at historic preservation and playing land banker, actually focusing on higher education.

Johnny Sins
4 months ago

the buildings in the rendering and parking podiums are atrocious. The city/county should consider keeping a tailored zoning designation for this site to encourage lower/mid rise buildings and appropriate human scale/open space.

Anon
4 months ago

You must be new here. Those are placeholders. A developer has not even been chosen yet, much less an architect.

anon
4 months ago

You must be new here. Almost every building built in the last 20 years still has a giant parking podium at the base.

Anonymous
4 months ago

The renders are simply representing massing and density, those aren’t the proposed designs as their aren’t any yet since a developer hasn’t been announced.

Juan
4 months ago

I don’t usually agree with opting for lower density but it makes sense here. The British Museum in London, for example, is surrounded by 3 story flats and green space which makes for an open and walkable landscape.

Anonymous
4 months ago

Make it an entirely green tropical oasis and modern downtown with lots of water light and airspace

Frank
4 months ago

Stick to laying pipe my dude. You have no clue.

Socretes
4 months ago

Those renderings are better identified as Massing Studies. Just drawings to demonstrate the height and set back requirements.

More than likely, this site is big enough to avoid dealing with Miami21 by size….or by way of the County TOD rules.

Melo is sigma and Chad
4 months ago

Always thought it looked like a building out of Don Quixote

Alpina
4 months ago

I could see this building converted into a market, like Ferry Market in San Francisco

Hey Girl!
4 months ago

Build a gayborhood – the gays can make anything look fabulous and bring up values!

Cover the Podiums
4 months ago

nah

Anonymous
4 months ago

stop trying so hard

Anonymous
4 months ago

This might be the truest statement in all of real estate and city development 😂

Anonymous
4 months ago

Also, Wynwood’s pretty gay.

Name
4 months ago

But it’s true. The gay community make areas look decent and up the values of the land.

Not Anonymous
4 months ago

Hope this project actually happens, that entire area needs revitalization. The cultural center was an ugly attempt to make a Spanish-looking building and failed miserably. Hopefully the replacement is more local looking. The Hudson Yards of the South!

Paul
4 months ago

The new renderings look like a fortress too.

Anonymous
4 months ago

They do, ugly bland high rises are NOT the way to go – it’s just more fortress way of developing and homeless will surround the streets.

Anonymous
4 months ago

About time! The County should build a cultural center in Brickell. There’s strong demand to keep it active.

Cover the Podiums
4 months ago

This has to go, but if this is very “pedestrian unfriendly” design, where does that put parking podiums with a stupid murals? cause we have literally in the heart of Brickell

Socretes
4 months ago

Literally.
My semi-objective survey of the foot traffic in the Brickell neighborhood shows that many pedestrians walk in Brickell on any given day. And many of world’s weakest men find it impossible, or unwalkable. But be that as it may.
Brickell is more active right now, than nearly any city in the USA.

Mad Dash
4 months ago

From the start this was horribly designed. Plaza was not visible from anywhere. Difficult to access.
What was PJ thinking????

....
4 months ago

If people actually went to our history museum and main library the current space should suffice. Over the last 40 years, there have been several really cool events in that courtyard. Just wish more locals went in general.

Anonymous
4 months ago

They have to get past the concrete fortress and swaths of homeless / otherwise I’m sure it’s nice inside.

Scott Hall
4 months ago

Unpopular opinion: the ‘fortress’ like aspect of it was actually pretty neat, even if the other criticisms were valid. A better executed and more fully committed district in Miami inspired by European architecture and pedestrian street oriented layouts (see for example, Quebec City in Canada or Toledo Spain just as examples) would be extremely popular even if just by virtue of being different.

Socretes
4 months ago

Okay….Well…that’s just your opinion man…

“Pretty neat” is not a nomenclature I’d self-ascribe.

Bart
4 months ago

No more tall boring, predictable buildings in downtown please! We have too many condos and office buildings already! Since the lot it’s public property why not a landmark cultural-use building with a unique design?

Anonymous
4 months ago

Too many condos? Are you kidding? We need way more condo buildings for the current population, let alone the droves of people heading here in the next 5-10 years.

Norm the pizza guy
4 months ago

I’m for short, exciting and unpredictable buildings. Build them. Miami needs them badly.

Anonymous
4 months ago

A library with “subpar finishes”! Oh dear…..

Hi!!
4 months ago

They should bring the public library back to its original location on Bayfront Park where everyone including locals and tourists can enjoy it, like NYCs 42 Street.

MiamiCityMan
4 months ago

How about we get rid of State Road 970 while we’re at it? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_State_Road_970

Anonymous
4 months ago

Yes! Density baby!!

Mike
4 months ago

NEW renderings look like the PROJECTS. come on man!! I hope they do something better. Those buildings in the renderings look like 1970s.

Captain
4 months ago

That’s where I buy my weed

Ludo
4 months ago

I used to study at that library when I was a kid, someone stole my sandwich

anon
4 months ago

The concepts shared are literally the opposite of Hudson Yards and it’s 21st Century pedestrian first urban design.

Socretes
4 months ago

Literally?
So literally the opposite of a 50 story high rise is 50 story below ground?

Perhaps you are not using the word “literally” correctly.

Downtown Blue Voter
4 months ago

We need to make room for more standard-looking architecture.

Alpina
4 months ago

Why? we already have Melo

Anonymous
4 months ago

Your name checks out.

Independent Not Red/Blue Voter
4 months ago

I think this person was being sarcastic.