The New Blank Canvas: Parking as a Platform for Artistic Expression

For the past decade, South Florida has been on the cutting edge of parking facility design. Miami’s Design District is the latest destination to identify parking as an opportunity to incorporate cutting edge design into its parking facilities. Applying a taste for artistic expression to their new parking facilities, the Design District is using the development of its two new parking facilities as a “canvas” for artistic expression.

The District’s soon to be completed City View parking structure, and the currently in design Museum parking structure, incorporate the visions of numerous façade architects, while showcasing its dedication to the creative experience. The projects have served as an opportunity to bring the vision of artistic expression out of the more traditional public spaces within the Design District, to become the first thing that visitors will see and interact with upon arriving.

Our firm is serving as Architect of Record for both projects, owned by Miami developer DACRA. Working with world-renowned architects and designers like Leong Leong Architects and Iwamoto Scott on the City View garage, and Keenan/Riley, Work Architecture Company, Clavel Arquitectos, Nicolas Buffe, and Jürgen Mayer-Hermann for the Museum garage, the facilities will incorporate revolutionary design features that will change the idea of typical parking garage design forever.

By carrying artistic design out to the parking areas, it allows an often overlooked experience within a development to instead make a significant contribution and further connect the development to the surrounding community. The parking facilities will provide a unique connection between parking and the rest of the development with its vibrant facades, dramatic lighting, and ground floor retail spaces to engage the pedestrian.

The Design District will continue to transform into a community that combines the ideas of art, architecture, and culture together into one place, and will ensure that the development will be an international destination for years to come.

This has been an abridged version of an article that originally appeared in the April issue of The Parking Professional. To read the entire article click here: The New Blank Canvas.