Vote on Miami Beach Convention Center bid set

Miami Beach commissioners are set to pick Wednesday evening between two renowned architects’ competing bids for a 52-acre revamp of the city’s convention center, one of the biggest public architecture prizes being sought in the U.S.

The proposals were tweaked last week following a memo from Miami Beach’s city manager Jimmy Morales that emphasized reducing the budget, eliminating residential plans and increasing the number of parking spaces.

With both sides receiving notable endorsements, the competing developer-architect teams are South Beach ACE, led by Dan Tishman, the heir of a New York development empire including the World Trade Center and Freedom Tower; and Portman CMC, led by Jack Portman of the Atlanta-based Portman Group, the scion of influential 1970s architect and developer John Portman. Rem Koolhaas’ OMA Group is the conceptual architect for South Beach ACE; the design firm of his former protege, Bjarke Ingels Group, is the Portman team’s conceptual architect.

Here is how the teams line up, comparing their previous numbers with revised plans submitted following Morales’ July memo: