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New $500M convention center design gets approval
The Miami Beach Design Review Board unanimously approved designs for an expanded convention center and two nearby parks on Tuesday.
Miami Beach commissioners still must choose a general contractor for the $500 million project, which could begin in December 2015. The board’s approval came with conditions: members must receive a report detailing how the revamped convention center will handle traffic within 90 days. They also want details on how the center will be more environmentally-friendly and a list of potential staging areas for future events, such as the Miami International Boat Show and Art Basel.
The plans for a renovated convention center and two new parks were created by Denver-based Fentress Architects, Miami-firm Arquitectonica and West 8 Urban Design & Landscape Architecture of New York. Under the approved design, 70,000 square feet of new meeting and ballroom facilities and 900 parking spaces will be added to the 1-million-square-foot center, which was built in 1957.
A glass façade is designed to illuminate future conventions with natural sunlight from the outside, according to a planning department report. The renovation will also create “more flexible arrangements of private meeting rooms and additional indoor/outdoor versatile exhibition spaces.”
To create more open space, the 21st Street Recreation Center on Washington Avenue will be demolished and replaced with a 1.8-acre park. The 800-space parking lot surrounding the convention center will also be converted into a 5.8-acre park filled with canopy trees, a lawn area and a veterans’ plaza.
The improvements will come at a cost, as the parking lot used as a staging area to build exhibition space will be eliminated, according to Maria Hernandez, a special assistant to the city manager.
“That will have to be marshalled outside of Miami Beach,” Hernandez said.
Behind the convention center, Miami Beach commissioners are considering the construction of a hotel behind the Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackson Gleason Theater. The project would likely need approval from 60 percent of the city’s voters.