DawnTown Architecture Competition, Landmark Miami Contest, Building, News, Florida

DawnTown Architecture Competition : Landmark Miami

Architectural Contest, Florida, USA

Feb 4, 2013

DawnTown Architecture Competition

MIAMI, FL – FEBRUARY 2013 – DawnTown is launching its latest ideas competition on for the 2013 season, entitled LANDMARK MIAMI. The competition is centered around the idea of how cities are recognized and perceived through architecture. Many cities worldwide are instantly identified by their exclusive architectural elements: Seattle has the Space Needle, St.Louis has the Arch, Paris the Eiffel Tower, Sydney has it’s Opera House, and the list goes on. This raises the question: What is Miami’s landmark? Although this city has impressive local architectural gems (The Freedom Tower, Miami Marine Stadium), these buildings reflect a different character and time period of Miami. In the last 10 years, the city has radically changed and continues to do so. What this competition on seeks, is not to replace the significant architecture, but to add a new landmark representing what Miami is about today and for the future.

image from architect

The DawnTown Architecture Competition is open to all designers, professionals and students, and there is no registration fee. The launch date is February 1st with a materials deadline on April 15th. This year’s site is Bayfront Park, toward the waterfront where currently the Noguchi fountain sits. Designers will be tasked to create a new icon or symbol within the park and overlooking the waters of Biscayne Bay. This year’s DawnTown jury is made up of a diverse group of individuals. Members of the jury include Allan Shulman, FAIA, Principal of Shulman+Associates and President of the AIA Miami chapter; Damir Sinovcic, Author and Editor of the architectural publication on DesignBook; Sonia Bogensperger, Marketing and Business Development Manager for the Miami Downtown Development Authority; and Manuel Clavel-Rojo, Principal of Clavel Arquitectos in Murcia, Spain and recent DawnTown Design/ Build winner. Prizes to the top three proposals will be awarded in the amounts of $3000, $1500, and $500 US.

As in our past competitions, DawnTown is looking for ideas that spark discussions and change for the city of Miami. LANDMARK MIAMI is the fifth (5) ideas competition and sixth (6) overall by DawnTown. This project is sponsored by the Miami Downtown Development Authority.

Dec 17, 2010

DawnTown Architecture Contest

DAWNTOWN ARCHITECTURE COMPETITON WINNERS ANNOUNCED Downtown Miami Ceremony Also Features World-Famous Architects

DOWNTOWN MIAMI, FL – December, 2010 – Winners of the 2010 DawnTown architecture competition, which invited innovative designs for a seaplane terminal on an island in downtown Miami, were announced on December 3, at an award ceremony that featured remarks by world-famous architects Chad Oppenheim and Terry Riley.

– 1st Prize: Team “CA Landscape”, including Trevor Curtis and Sylvia Kim, from Seoul, South Korea, with its design entitled “Miami Glades”.

– 2nd Prize: Team “Stantec”, including Vicky Chan, Liange Otero Colon, and Alex Zulas, from New York, New York, with its design entitled “Amphibian”.

– 3rd Prize: Gerd Wetzel and Martin Plock, from Basel, Switzerland, with their design entitled “Miami Loop”.

– Honorable Mention: team “NC-Office”, including Nik Nedev, Peter Nedev, Elizabeth Cardona, Cristina Canton, and Jorge San Martin, from Miami, Florida, with its design eneitled “Large Roof”.

– Honorable Mention: team “Zerovolume”, including Jung Seung Young and Joo Hee Kim from Seoul, South Korea, with its design entitled “Miami Breath”.

– Honorable Mention: Nik Martinov from Moscow, Russia with his design entitled “Vacuum”.

Winners of the competition, which was sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Miami Downtown Development Authority, appeared at the award ceremony at Miami Dade College’s downtown campus by video from around the world to explain their designs and offer thanks.

The first-prize team noted that the competition site, Watson Island, has potential as a “great cultural and transportation hub” and thus described their design as an “environmentally-intelligent” building that “embraces the culture and nature of Miami.”

The second-prize team emphasized that their concept was to “translate the remarkable amphibian character of the seaplane into a sculptural architectural composition with intricately woven spaces”, a task they termed “urban design choreography”.

Mr. Wetzel and Mr. Plock, winners of third prize, explained that their design was “first about function and how to create a focus point in the area” that both “arranged spaces in a simple way” and “created a sense of arrival from both water and land”.

Following the announcement of prizes and honorable mentions, Mr. Oppenheim spoke about his architectural philosophy. “The idea is to blend the foreground and background,” he said, “allowing the natural world to permeate and become central to the design”. Mr. Oppenheim presented several of his firm’s designs that reflect this idea in locations as diverse as a tropical city, a desert, and a group of man-made islands.

The ceremony began with Mr. Riley’s impressions of the 2010 DawnTown entries. “The world projects optimism onto Miami; you see inexhaustible optimism coming from these designs,” said Mr. Riley. “But the designs are a mirror, a reflection of Miamians and our city, just bounced off other surfaces.”

DawnTown 2010 Competition Co-Director Joachim Perez said, “DawnTown turns the urban fabric of Miami into a design laboratory. Each year DawnTown competition entrants present creative, playful, and unique insights into Miami’s design potential.”

Looking back on this year’s competition, Co-Director Matthew Anders concluded, “DawnTown has once again brought exciting, international architectural ideas to Miami, and fostered important discussions and the talent of designers, both young and old.”

About DawnTown DawnTown Inc. organizes the annual public international architecture competition for downtown Miami. DawnTown’s mission is to bring innovative architecture to downtown Miami, and to tell the exciting urban story of downtown Miami to the world. For more information, visit www.dawntown.org.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote community engagement and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.

About Miami DDA The Miami Downtown Development Authority (Miami DDA) is an agency charged with making Downtown Miami the most livable urban center in the nation and strengthening its position as the international center for commerce, culture, and tourism. For more information, visit www.miamidda.com.

Sep 17, 2010

DawnTown Architecture Competition Launches New Design Challenge

Oct 26, 2010 – registration closing date

DawnTown Miami Seaplane Terminal

DawnTown, Miami’s annual global architectural competition, returns for its third year of inviting international talent to imagine the future of Miami’s urban core. Led by two new co-directors, Matthew Anders and Joachim Perez, DawnTown opens the 2010 competition for the design of a seaplane terminal.
DawnTown was the first event of Basel week to bring attention to downtown Miami. Now with the arrival of new art and culture centers, the Miami Heat Big 3 and a bustling financial district, it is set to be one of the city’s premiere events.
DawnTown encourages creative ideas and innovative designs to make Miami an even greater world-class city; key to that is transportation. DawnTown 2010 paves the way for the conception of a seaplane terminal just off Watson Island, helping to define downtown Miami as a major hub. The project also highlights its role as the gateway to the Caribbean and Latin America.
Deadline for registration is October 26, with all materials due by October 28. Designs chosen by the jury will be awarded between $2000-$8000 during Art Basel week.

Keynote address at the DawnTown awards ceremony will be by international award-winning architect Chad Oppenheim of Oppenheim Architecture + Design. Oppenheim is the mastermind behind Ten Museum Park and Simpson Park in Miami, and most recently, the Enzo Enea Headquarters and Tree Museum in Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland.

“I am really excited to be the keynote speaker for DawnTown as I share the dream of how innovative architecture can make Miami one of the greatest cities of the 21st Century,” says Chad Oppenehim.

Also speaking at the awards ceremony will be Terry Riley of Keenan Riley Arhitects. Riley is the former chief curator of art and design at the MoMa in New York City and the former director of the Miami Art Museum in Miami.

DawnTown Architecture Competition Jury
– Jean Francois Lejeune, graduate director, University of Miami School of Architecture
– Dennis Scholl, vice president/art and miami program director at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
– Charles Kropke, owner of Chalks International Airways
– Erick Goldemberg, principal, MONAD Studio and FIU Architecture Professor
– Javier Betancourt, deputy director of the Miami Downtown Development Authority
– Francisco Garcia Iglesias, director of planning for the City of Miami

“The Dawntown competition has been excellent for downtown. The competition has inspired hundreds, if not thousands, of designers and architects from around the world to display their talents using downtown as their canvas, and the results have been truly amazing,” says Javier Betancourt, Deputy Director of the Miami Downtown Development Authority. “We look forward, as always, to see what this year’s competition will showcase, and hope to continue this important design conversation well into the future.”
According to Andrew Frey, creator and founder of DawnTown, this competition presents a rare and dynamic program that inspires international architects. “Every year DawnTown brings exciting and original design opportunities to downtown Miami,” he says. “This year features an exceptional topic that could only happen in Miami—a seaplane terminal in the heart of a downtown, created on an island that is next to a cruise port, highway, and tunnel, with a tropical climate and close proximity to the islands of the Caribbean.”

For more information, and to download materials for the competition, go to www.dawntown.org.

About DawnTown
DawnTown is the annual public international architecture ideas competition for Downtown Miami. DawnTown’s mission is to bring innovative architecture to Downtown Miami, and help tell the exciting urban story of Downtown Miami to the world.

Miami Seaplane Terminal Contest information from DawnTown Architecture Competition

Previously:

Dec 11, 2009

DawnTown Architecture Competition – Winners

Downtown Miami Ceremony Also Features World-Famous Landscape Architect
Winners of the 2009 DawnTown architecture competition were announced at an award ceremony in downtown Miami that also featured captivating remarks from world-famous landscape architect Adriaan Geuze. Winning designs:

1st Prize: Team “Office 24/7” from Melbourne, Australia: Rosalea Monacella, Craig Douglas, and Armando Suinaga

2nd Prize: Team “See You Sunday” from Bangkok, Thailand: Saran Chaiyasuta and Prachaya Vanagul

3rd Prize: Team “Double Katya” from St. Petersburg, Russia: Ekaterina Mikhaylova and Ekaterina Vasilieva

Honorable Mention: Team “Weston Williamson” from London, England: Chris Williamson

Winners of the competition – which is sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Miami Downtown Development Authority, and Akerman Senterfitt, and hosted at the Marquis tower in downtown Miami – appeared during the award ceremony by video from their homes around the world to explain their designs and offer thanks.

First-prize winner Mr. Suinaga emphasized that his team’s project “becomes an interior landscape where the station is more than just a station, a place where you can watch interesting videos and installations.” Mr. Suinaga credited architecture competitions as “the most interesting way of addressing the challenges of city areas…and also learn from a wide variety of proposals.”

Second-prize winner Mr. Chaiyasuta summarized his team’s design as “pure form and simple mass to contain life and activity” but from which passengers can still have a “variety of visual perceptions.” Mr. Chaiyasuta said that he and his teammate had hoped that their design would not simply take home a prize, but also “express our idea for a better life.”

Ms. Mikhaylova, accepting third prize in her first international competition, explained of her team’s design: “When you approach the station…you see unexpected dynamic space with sharp angles.” Honorable-mention designer Chris Williamson, who attended the award ceremony in person from London, said that his team “wanted to do something practical that could be built [but] we hope it reflects the glamour, the energy, and the vibrancy” of Miami.

The jury selected winners using a “double blind” process by which jurors saw only entrants’ drawings and no other identifying information, such as name or address. According to DawnTown co-creator and Executive Director Andrew Frey, “The geographic diversity of the winners reflects the growing global awareness of the downtown Miami community’s support for innovative architecture.”

After the winning designs were unveiled, ceremony attendees were treated to brilliant and entertaining remarks by Adriaan Geuze, the world-famous landscape architect and founder of West 8, which was recently selected by the New World Symphony to design a park next to its new building in Miami Beach. Mr. Geuze began by exhorting that “We have to design today in a full understanding of social interaction [and] we have to be more respectful to nature. But even beyond that, we have to take nature on board.”

Mr. Geuze went on to present several West 8 projects that embody this merger of culture and ecology, including a vast streetscape, park, and bridge project in Madrid; a Toronto waterfront and bridge project that injects elements of Canadian wilderness into the city; and, in London, an office development with central garden inspired by the phrase “Thank God it’s Monday.”

Mr. Geuze concluded by turning his attention to Miami and his latest project. “The city of Miami [had] sort of a remarkable urban renaissance the last 10 years.” Mr. Geuze described his preliminary concept for the park next to the New World Symphony as a soft network of grass and stone paths and a “veil” of palm trees, through which one will view the massive video screen on the exterior of the New World Symphony building, all surrounded by an iconic trellis.

The award ceremony also featured an exhibit of all competition entries, as well as welcoming remarks from Bernardo Fort-Brescia, founder of Arquitectonica and architect of the ceremony venue, the Marquis luxury residential and hotel tower on Biscayne Boulevard.

Looking back on this year’s competition and award ceremony, Mr. Frey said “DawnTown 2009 has been a great success, especially the geographic diversity of the winners and the high quality of all entries. We have funding already for next year’s prizes, so get ready for more innovative architecture showcasing downtown Miami’s urban renaissance.”

DawnTown Architecture Competition Miami images / information received 111209

DawnTown Architecture Competition
During Art Basel Miami Beach