South Beach panorama

Art Basel has come and gone but the Herzog & de Meuron multi-dimensional ultimate parking garage still captivates at 1111 Lincoln Road where you can park, party, live, dine, shop, and any day now, hook up at the Shake Shack. After a few of Miami Beach’s monsoon and tropical storm seasons, it might be interesting to revisit 11 11’s open-air concept in covered parking.

Lincoln Road ramble
by Augustus Mayhew

South Beach’s cutting-edge transient styles and Palm Beach’s rigid high-hedge traditions showcase today’s clash of cultural extremes where I-pulsive text-and-tweet antenna heads show little enthusiasm or compassion for yesterday’s cast-iron norms and rationales.

When better for a latest outside-the-box look at Lincoln Road on Miami Beach than with Worth Avenue undergoing a $15.8 million makeover, including new sidewalks and a clock tower, yes, a clock tower. Hard to believe there was ever a time when these two iconic shopping aisles ever shared a similar portfolio of shops. Today’s Lincoln Road, now a “premier pedestrian promenade,” offers a breather for the Beverly Hills-Berlin-Buenos Aires set as Worth Avenue entertains the Grosse Pointe-UES-Chestnut Hill traffic who savor the quaint retail standards established by town-serving codes.

Facing Alton Road’s Epicure Market, a look-through of 11 11’s west elevation displays the various planes of cantilevered concrete slabs buttressed by angulated cut-out pylons. At the building and plaza’s opening, the city manager told the Miami Herald, “Lincoln Road is complete and it is something to behold.”

With projects from Beijing to Southampton, architectural partners Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, accompanied by their 200+ associates, practice by way of a worldwide aesthetic license. In addition to their design for the Miami Art Museum scheduled to open in 2013, Herzog & de Meuron has installed an urbane concrete with a touch of glass multi-functional parking garage described as “all muscle without cloth” on Miami Beach at 1111 Lincoln Road, referenced as 11 11 Lincoln Road. For the extension of the Lincoln Road pedestrian plaza along 11 11’s south elevation, the acclaimed designers collaborated with Raymond Jungles who created what some have termed an “Urban Glade.” The ensemble of Florida native trees and undergrowth planted within and around geometric water gardens is “ bold, simple and timeless,” according to Jungles, a Miami-based landscape architect who is also at work a few block east of 11 11 at Frank Gehry’s New World Symphony campus.

Here is a glimpse of new and old Lincoln Road, along with a South Beach panorama snapped late Friday afternoon from atop 11 11, Herzog & de Meuron’s compelling sculptural study in concrete.

As seen from Alton Road, 11 11’s north and west elevations contrast with a view to the south of the Lincoln Center cineplex. Designed a decade ago by Zyscovich & Associates, Lincoln Center’s scale, massing and character are sympathetic to the prevailing infill’s bent for Moderne adaptations; Herzog & de Meuron’s work appears concentrated on the essence of form.

11 11’s developer Robert S. Wennett, whose previous projects as Starwood Urban Investments included mixed-use centers in Washington, D.C. and the Miracle Mile expansion in Coral Gables, transformed a through street that ran in front of Lincoln Center into a landscaped plaza that forms a new western anchor for Lincoln Road Mall.

Lincoln Center curves around Lincoln Road onto Alton Road, as seen above, making room for one more Cold Stone Creamery.

Seen from the Jungles-designed plaza, Lincoln Center’s colored glass panels reflect the SunTrust building and 11 11.

The plaza is paved with black-and-white stone, “pedras portuguesas,” much like Rio’s black basalt and white limestone sidewalks found in Copacabana. Mr. Jungles credits the influence of renowned Brazilian landscape architect Burle Marx (1909-1994). Afar, the S-shaped see-through sculpture, “Morris,” was designed by Dan Graham.

After strolling through Pottery Barn and Victoria’s Secret, you can pop into 11 11 for a quick shot at Nespresso’s “luxury boutique bar” and then step next door and select from a choice rack of glittering cover-ups for a night at The Mansion.

The Raymond Jungles-designed landscape is more of a calming water garden than the dazzling theatrics found in the too-often seen Las Vegas-style water features.

While it may be several years before the trees reach their peaks, the plaza’s sloped terrain, shaped ponds and contoured platforms are distinguished additions to Lincoln Road.

Banana Republic aptly anchors the new plaza’s southeast corner.

Located a block east of the 11 11/Lincoln Center plaza, this colorful fountain mosaic is framed by an original Mid-century Morris Lapidus-designed sunshade with the landmark Colony Theatre beyond.

Looking southwest, a view from the Colony Theatre fountain towards the newly conceived pedestrian plaza.

The Icebox Café has long been one of my faves and I see they are expanding.

In front of the Sterling Building the royal poinciana tree is getting ready to bloom. The shaded plantings do appear like decorative accessories rather than the more environmental atmosphere in the 11 11 block.