Hard Rock Hollywood California, via Hard Rock.
And the stadium of eight names (see if you can remember them all) will stay Hard Rock Stadium for at least a dozen years and perhaps a whole lot longer reports Herald sports columnist Armando Salguero, Could this mean more headliners in the halftime shows? Only time will tell.
Photo by Sean McCaughan
The Estates at Acqualina, which is bringing two more gigantic towers to the lavish and rambling Acqualina Resort & Spa complex in Sunny Isles Beach, just took the cake top off of its extremely at new sales center and model unit which closely duplicates a typical end unit in either building to almost every detail.
To achieve that, it had to be big, considering the typical end unit at the Estates is from approximately 3,500 to over 5,000, in just interior square footage. As icing on the cake, unlike many sales center set ups, and model unit interiors, this place is fully functional. The lights, of course, work, but so do the toilets in the model bathrooms, and the kitchen sink that can be activated by a foot sensor. The host tub gets hot, and the sauna gets hot too.
Connected by a multilevel amenities complex called ‘The Villa’ (which looks, you guessed it, like a villa) the towers are not actually perfectly symmetrical. The north tower has four units per floor, and the south tower has just two, a system that works more efficiently for private elevator access than two matching towers of 3-unit floors. Units come standard with little tricks treats like fountain-fed hot tubs, outdoor saunas accessed via wrap-around balcony, midnight kitchens in the master suite, gas fireplaces, hi-end wine dispensing/preserving appliances, and more marble than at a cemetery in a place called Carrera in Italy. Oh, and the penthouse will have hanging glass pools, just like the one over at the Mansions at Acqualina.
Artist Oliver Sanchez’s Instagram post summed it up perfectly. An historic Mediterranean Revival store with upstairs apartment in Buena Vista that kept its graceful original facade intact for almost a century has become an unmitigated disaster, losing its character entirely while gaining a sloppy new look, that frankly doesn’t look like much. The result is an unmitigated disaster and historic preservation, if one dares even use that term here, at its very worst.
The worst part is, it was no secret this was happening. The redevelopment made the real estate blog/news website rounds when it was announced, with a big rendering that has turned into reality. It was there and nobody noticed. Nobody raised the issue. Called Upper Buena Vista, the project by BVM Development is going to be a ‘mini urban village’ of shops, apartments, and ‘creative-class’ types of stuff with an old warehouse aesthetic. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a case of a good old building being stripped of its authentic past and redone in an an entirely fake history.
Upper Buena Vista
Screenshot from local 10 News, with LOVE sculpture and artist Maurizio Raponi.he
Mickey Munday, one of the biggest drug traffickers of Miami’s legendary ‘Cocaine Cowboy’ era has set out to change Miami again, but this time in a completely different way, by building neighborhood parks on neglected or underutilized pieces of public property. His first park was formerly a vacant lot in North Miami that the South Florida Water Management District uses to access the C-8 canal, which Mickey and artist Maurizio Raponi have transformed into the Lock-In-Love Park.
Munday gave Channel 10 News a tour recently, showing off a large heart formed in the turf, and a ‘LOVE’ sculpture by Raponi. The idea, Mickey says is to bring a lock symbolizing your love of someone or something, lock it to a chain in the park, and toss the key in the canal ( perhaps inspired by that bridge in Paris that broke under the weight of thousands of love locks) symbolizing the permanence of your love. More parks will follow says Munday and Raponi, who plan this to just be the first of many. “We want to get a lot of parks done like this, beautified and just promote positivity and love,” said Raponi.
Photo by Keith Allison / Flickr
Will A-Rod be the star attraction at Marlins Park in the near future? Rumors are running rampant that famed and notorious baseball slugger Alexander Rodriguez is about to sign with the Miami Marlins, after ESPN commentator and sports analyst JIm Bowden announced the intel on his Sirius XM radio show, and the MIami New Times picked it up.
“They’re going to sign him once he clears waivers on Monday,” said Bowden “This thing is gonna happen, so prepare yourself. It’s going to cost me personally because I made a lot of bets saying that nobody would sign Alex Rodriguez, that his career was done and that it should be.”
According to A-Rod’s people, however, the Marlins deal is definitely a no-go though. His manager Ron Berkowitz tweeted “It’s not happening.” Maybe an adamant ‘no’ or just a denial until it’s official? Or A-Rod could be waiting until next season.
Conclusion: It’s still a mystery.
Photo via Wynwood Yard.
When ZIka hit Wynwood, Miami’s reaction was immediate, and sweeping, and a little hysterical. The plague had struck Miami and it needed quarantined, and eradicated, or it would ravage South Florida. Wynwood became a ghost town that rained pesticide. Zika spread anyway, but was it too late for Wynwood? Would the people come back?
The monthly Wynwood Art Walk this Saturday “bustled with tourists and locals taking selfies, shopping, and browsing the galleries” reported the Miami Herald. The ‘Love for Locals’ campaign put on by local businesses hoping to bring people back to Wynwood was a hit, with many offering discounts and freebies. The Wynwood Yard, an outdoor park-like venue with food trucks and entertainment, reopened after having closed out of fear of anywhere outside or around foliage, where Zika-carrying mosquitos might be. According to the New Times, they’re taking more thought-out mosquito mitigation measures, including installing something called a MosquitoNix system, instead of just fleeing.
October 3rd is the big day. The SLS Brickell will officially be open, although the site is very clearly still under construction. We were lucky enough to get a hard-hat tour of the project from bottom to top this week and wow! Brickell is in for a treat! Here are some of the highlights from our outing:
The residential lobby has a really cool textured finish on all of the walls and the ceiling.
The hotel lobby has a dramatic curved staircase & direct entry to Fi’lia, Michael Schwartz’s newest restaurant in Miami. They will serve ‘honest Italian food,’ according to their instagram profile @filiarestaurant. (Check it out for pics of the plates).
Speaking of Fi’lia, here is a snap of the progress in the restaurant. It will have an open kitchen and be the more casual of the restaurants in SLS Brickell.
Up on the pool deck, things are coming along with the poolside restaurant and the signature Philippe Starck duck already in place. The pool deck has 2 large pools, a reflection pool and 2 jacuzzi’s along with cabanas and the restaurant.
Along side of the pool deck is the start of the meeting rooms. We anticipate many distractions from those meetings with the views of the South Brickell skyline and all of the action from the pool. But, what do you expect from Miami?
Up top, the residents will enjoy a private pool deck that they will not share with the hotel guests. (Sorry, guys. You have to pay to play.) This deck is on the 54th floor with crazy views all around.
The penthouses have private rooftop terraces with their own private pools.
Back down on the ground level, we toured Bazaar. That is the more fancy seafood restaurant that will have custom tile murals with mermaids, leopards, boating wildlife and all kinds of fun things. The spot will also have a fish tank and separate sushi room.
They already have plenty of parties booked, including a farewell party for a certain much-loved Miami Heat player.
The residences should start closings as well in October, but are pending their TCO (temporary certificate of occupancy). Currently there is only 1 unit remaining, a 50th floor penthouse for $1,698,900.
The hotel is already booking rooms, with a crazy introductory rate of $200/night! I’m sure that won’t last long, but get it while it’s hot! See you there!
Photo by Phillip Pessar.
Sure, it’s not a train, or even real light rail, but as people move to condos and apartments in and around the urban core, the City of Miami’s trolley service has become a big hit. The three newest trolley lines, which circulate through Wynwood, Coconut Grove, and Little Havana, launched March 1st have proven immediately popular… particularly the Little Havana line by a long shot. According to recent ridership tallies, the Little Havana line had over 70,000 riders in June, while Wynwood had almost 6,000, and Coconut Grove over 14,000. A new direct connection to the Coral Gables trolley network is also expected to increase the Grove line numbers. Sure those numbers are probably nothing compared to New York or wherever, but in Miami’s transition to being a more multi-modal city, that’s a solid step forward. When the City Commission reconvenes September 8th, they will again take up the idea of expanding the Miami trolley service city-wide.
The lobby
The Bond on Brickell, which used to be called the Bond ‘at’ Brickell until its developers MDR and the Rilea Group secured an address and entrance on Brickell Avenue itself for the building (the name change has become something of, shall we say, a conversation piece) recently received its temporary certificate of occupancy for most of the building, and has started closings while still putting on finishing touches. It is also almost completely sold out, with only about a dozen units remaining according to a building representative. Meanwhile, it was recently reported that the first unit closings took place earlier this week. Today the building was a beehive of activity as workers got the Bond showcase ready and brokers brought their clients/current owners/us for a looksie.
On the first floor, the building’s driveway can be entered via either Brickell Avenue or SE 1st Avenue, leading to a covered porte cochere which will have a waterfall feature, and the building’s signature London phone booth. Inside, the spacious lobby itself is divided into a few sitting areas, with a fireplace, overstuffed couches, and mod chairs, giving it a bit of a British vibe. Not really British-meets-the-tropics, or British colonial, just British. Walls throughout are paneled in a variety of interesting materials. In the lobby, surfaces alternate between gray suede and dark, blood red leather. Despite its location in the heart of Brickell, the building’s interiors are hushed, due to a layer of fiberglass behind all the walls.
Upstairs, on the amenity level, a club room, library, and fitness center all look out onto an amenity deck with a large T-shaped pool and outdoor fire pit. Also on the floor is a children’s playroom which is probably the most explicitly flag-flying, ‘God save the Queen’-ing part of the entire building, with wallpaper covered in British-isms like ‘Mind the Gap.’ Mens and women’s saunas and steam room, with accompanying locker rooms, are elsewhere on the floor, slightly oddly not attached to the gym, but on the opposite side. They are tiled in contrasting black and white rocks, to moody effect.
Finally, we checked out a few units with varying layouts. Balconies are generously deep, all kitchens come standard with Bosch appliances, designed to coordinate with the dark wood cabinetry, and some units come with dens. Interior doors feel solid wood, instead of hollow, which is often the case, and door handles and other hardware is nice.
One final note about the exterior. Although renderings gave the impression of dramatic exterior lighting, it appeared that this was not (or at least not yet?) part of the final design. Where there would have been long bands of light shooting up and across the facade as of now are just bands of decorative plaster, painted a dark gray.
