Over the last few years the city of Miami Beach has become the new playground for renowned architects’ take on the modern parking complex. International superstars like Frank Gehry, Herzog & de Meuron, and Enrique Norton have each contributed to the expanding “starchitecture” that has taken over South Florida. And now British national, Zaha Hadid, is the latest to add her unique perspective to the type of structure that will house our vehicles in the coming decades.
Zaha Hadid was commissioned by the City of Miami to design the proposed $12.5 million parking garage at Collins Park in the northeast area of South Beach. The car park will service traffic for the Miami City Ballet, the Bass Museum, and the City Library. It will also most certainly join Gehry’s New World Center, Herzog & de Meuron’s 1111 Lincoln Road, and Norten’s 420 Lincoln Road as a parking garage/event space/tourist attraction new age hybrid. With municipalities constantly searching for new and innovative revenue streams, this Miami model of combining art, commerce, and public space may be the new approach that helps cash-strapped cities continue to expand physically & culturally during the waning days of The Great Recession.
“This is a great opportunity for the City of Miami Beach to expand its commitment to leading edge architectural design,” said the city’s mayor, Matti Bower in an official statement. “Even our parking garages…have become destinations within themselves and have attained individual iconic status. Every building can be a work of art. We are pleased to work with Ms. Hadid and we are delighted with her contemporary and brilliant design for our newest parking garage.”
Hadid is one of the most prominent architects in the world. Her London-based firm, Zaha Hadid Architects, is responsible for over 950 projects in 44 different countries. Viewed by many as groundbreaking, Hadid’s previous works include the Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati, China’s Guangzhou Opera House, and the London Aquatic Center. In 2010, Hadid was selected to design the new Central Bank of Iraq located in her hometown of Baghdad.
Zaha Hadid was born in Baghdad on October 31, 1950. After graduating from the American University of Beirut and the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, Hadid started her own firm in 1980. She later served on staff at several distinguished universities around the world, including Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Yale’s School of Architecture, and the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg, Germany. Hadid has also won numerous international architectural awards and competitions. In 2004, she became the first female winner of one of the industry’s most prestigious honors, the Pritzker Architecture Prize, also known as the Nobel Prize of Architecture. She is also the reigning 2-time winner of the Royal Institute of British Architect’s Stirling Prize.
Check out more footage of Hadid’s designs:
DZI: The Voice 