Thesis Designing the Hyphen

Thesis Designing the Hyphen

THESIS DESIGNING THE HYPHEN: LINKING IDENTITY AND ARCHITECTURE IN BACARDI’S FORMER MIAMI HEADQUARTERS Claudia Sans Werner Interior Design In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Master of Art Corcoran College of Art and Design Washington, DC Spring 2013 Thesis Statement Observation Buildings do not stand still. They reflect the cultural, political and historical identity of the moment in which they were created – and both reflect and affect the moments that follow. Proposition/Argument Shifts in culture often produce a sense of dislocation, a questioning of identity. The resulting dichotomies (traditional-modern, local-international, public-private, preservation-innovation, past-present, art-architecture, etc.) offer the designer an opportunity to peer into the spaces in between and reveal both the connections and ruptures. Mutability defines the hyphen, a state that should be exposed, exploited and celebrated. Direction The former Bacardi headquarters in downtown Miami, Florida – an interstitial space in many ways – should be reconceptualized into a kinetic place where Cuban and Cuban-American artists work, art from the past and the present is exhibited, and the public interacts with them. In this way the campus will reflect the changes in Cuban- American identity since the buildings were erected for the Cuban spirits company shortly after the 1959 Cuban Revolution; it will continue and expand upon the cultural exchanges for which Miami is becoming known, and it will reintegrate an isolated office park into its current urban landscape. Abstract Designing the Hyphen: Linking identity and architecture in Bacardi’s former Miami headquarters Buildings do not stand still. They reflect and affect the cultural, political and historical identity of the moment in which they were created – and both reflect and affect the moments that follow. Shifts in culture often produce a sense of dislocation, a questioning of identity. The resulting dichotomies (traditional-modern, local-international, public-private, preservation-innovation, past-present, art-architecture, etc.) offer the designer an opportunity to peer into the spaces in between and reveal both the connections and ruptures. Mutability defines the hyphen, a state that should be exposed, exploited and celebrated. The former Bacardi headquarters in downtown Miami, Florida should be reconceptualized into a kinetic place where Cuban and Cuban-American artists work, art from the past and the present is exhibited, and the public interacts with them. In this way the campus will reflect the changes in Cuban-American identity since the buildings were erected for the Cuban spirits company shortly after the 1959 Cuban Revolution; it will continue and expand upon the cultural exchanges for which Miami is becoming known, and it will reintegrate an isolated office park into its current urban landscape. Approaching a culturally and historically significant structure such as the former Bacardi headquarters as a palimpsest will reveal not only the influence of the past, but also the significance of societal shifts through time and the relevance of the buildings today. Through analyzing precedents, and by engaging scale, exposing and concealing traces and layers, designing circulation, and considering the fluid relationship between art and architecture, this project proposes creating gallery and studio/residential spaces on the Bacardi campus that will revel in the hyphenated state. This study explores the relationship of the former Bacardi headquarters to the pronounced transformations in not only the Cuban exile community in Miami, but also in its immediate surroundings, and in the artistic communities that have sprouted around it. By exploiting the “hyphens,” the points where shifts in identity are occurring, where the traces of previous physical incarnations bump into the present, and where art and architecture become entangled, this thesis will attempt to reactivate the Bacardi campus and propose a dynamic force that responds to as well as provokes the Miami of yesterday, today and tomorrow. The author on the Bacardi campus in Miami, Florida, in January 2013. Contents PART 1: Sides of the Hyphen……………………………………….…...1 PART 2: Site and Program Site: The Bacardi campus……………………………..….6 Program: Cuban-American arts center….…………...…..17 PART 3: Materials……………………………………………………....34 Existing Materials: Modernist underpinnings with a tropical slant Proposed Materials: Innovative interventions that promote interactions PART 4: Design, Research and Methodology Palimpsests……………………………………...….…….38 Scale…………………………...….…………….…….…..40 Circulation………………………………….....…………..43 Synthesis of the Arts…………………….……..……..…..48 PART 5: Design Study Opening Up the Jewel Box: An exploration into internal tensions and external projections………….…….54 Negotiating the Hyphen: Scaling interventions into the plaza……………………………………………...72 The Tiled Tower: Vistas within and beyond……….…….80 PART 6: Findings and Moves Towards Resolution………….….………83 PART 7: Contributions………………………………………………….102 NOTES………………………………………………….………..……..107 BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIX: Final Presentation Boards Figures 1. Flagler Development. http://flagler.matrix2hosting.com/index.php?view=properties&id=102&option=com_jea&Itemid=52 2. Robin Hill Photography. http://robinhill.photoshelter.com/ 3. Google Earth 4. City of Miami Historic and Environmental Preservation Board. “The Bacardi Buildings Designation Report” 5. Author’s rendering 6. Robin Hill Photography. http://robinhill.photoshelter.com/ 7. Robin Hill Photography. http://robinhill.photoshelter.com/ 8. Author’s rendering 9. Robin Hill Photography. http://robinhill.photoshelter.com/ 10. Author’s rendering 11. Author’s map 12. Author’s chart 13. Author’s chart 14. Author’s rendering 15. Author’s chart 16. Author’s sketch 17. Author’s chart 18. Author’s chart 19. Robin Hill Photography. http://robinhill.photoshelter.com/ 20. Juxtapoz magazine. http://www.juxtapoz.com/Street-Art/jr-in-miamis-wynwood-arts-district 21. Bridge House Events. http://www.bridgehouseevents.com/venues_moore06.php 22. Herzog & de Meuron 23. Author’s sketch 24. Robin Hill Photography. http://robinhill.photoshelter.com/ 25. Author’s chart 26. Robin Hill Photography. http://robinhill.photoshelter.com/ 27. Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania. http://www.icaphila.org/exhibitions/garaicoa.php 28. BBC News website. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-20266899 29. Andy Battaglia in Art Forum. http://artforum.com/diary/id=26046 30. Author’s sketches 31. Smithsonian.com, courtesy of Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup 32. Author’s tracings of Burle Marx plans and landscapes from Roberto Burle Marx: The Unusual Art of the Garden by William Howard Adams 33. Bicycle/Pedestrian Mobility Plan for the Miami Downtown Development Authority Area, prepared by the Miami Dade Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Miami Downtown Development Authority, (2011). 34. Brickell Reporter 35. STUDIOS Architecture 36. Kimbell Art Museum website. https://www.kimbellart.org/architecture/kahn-building/light 37. Photo by Rory Hyde. ArchDaily website. http://www.archdaily.com/84988/ad-classics-ronchamp-le- corbusier/ronchamp_roryrory/ 38. Author’s model 39. Author’s model 40. Flickr photostream of Helen Sotiriadis. http://www.flickr.com/photos/toomanytribbles/3674845560/ 41. Fabric Architecture website. http://fabricarchitecturemag.com/articles/0712_app_fabric_walls.html 42. Author’s sketch. 43. Author’s rendering 44. Compilation of paintings from online sources. Clockwise from top left: http://www.trienalsanjuan.org/exhibiciones/guido-Llinás/; http://www.cubaartny.org/pages/artists/guidoLlinás/work4.html; http://guidoLlinás.com/paintings.htm; http://www.latinamericanartsale.com/all-paintings/guido-Llinás/2 45. http://www.latinamericanartsale.com/all-paintings/guido-Llinás/2 46. Author’s sketch 47. Author’s sketch 48. Author’s sketch 49. Author’s sketch 50. Author’s rendering 51. Author’s drawing 52. Author’s drawing 53. Author’s drawing 54. Author’s drawing 55. Author’s drawing 56. Author’s drawing 57. Author’s drawing 58. Robin Hill Photography. http://robinhill.photoshelter.com/ 59. Author’s sketch 60. Author’s collage 61. Author’s collage 62. Author’s collage 63. Author’s collage 64. Author’s model 65. Author’s rendering 66. Author’s rendering 67. Author’s rendering 68. Author’s model 69. Author’s rendering 70. Author’s drawing 71. Architects and Artisans website notes the photo is provided by Bacardi International: http://architectsandartisans.com/index.php/2010/06/miami-modern-at-the-aia-convention/ 72. Author’s drawing 73. Author’s rendering 74. Author’s drawing 75. Author’s rendering 76. Author’s drawing 77. Author’s drawing 78. Author’s rendering 79. Author’s drawing 80. Author’s rendering 81. Author’s drawing 82. Author’s drawing 83. Author’s drawing 84. Author’s drawing 85. Author’s rendering 86. Author’s rendering 87. Author’s drawing 88. Author’s drawing 89. Author’s rendering 90. Author’s rendering 91. Author’s drawing PART 1: SIDES OF THE HYPHEN The hyphen is a geography of change. –Lynette M. F. Bosch With time, perception of a building’s appearance changes. It changes in relation to the landscape and structures surrounding it, or because of the people occupying it, or with the angle of sight, with the movement of light across its façade, or with the reflection of clouds or concrete in its windows. Partitions are moved or created to accommodate emerging or receding needs. Windows are sealed shut or covered with

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