Can Somebody Save the Midcentury Gulf American Building’s Sexy Sun Shades?

Former Gulf American/INS Building. Photo courtesy BrettHufziger.com.

The old INS Building, originally known as the Gulf American Building and an under-appreciated midcentury modern icon just outside the boundary of the Biscayne Boulevard MiMo District, is losing its signature anodized aluminum sun shades. Photographer Brett Hufgizer (see more at BrettHufziger.com) noticed construction workers removing the distinctive architectural elements from the facade yesterday. The building (historic photo below) originally had a glassed-in lobby and distinctive rooftop news ticker. As I once pointed out on Curbed Miami, the screens were used to shade the building’s windows from the direct light of the sun, in the days before solar tinting. They doubled as a place for architectural display. At the very top was a funky ‘GA’ logo. Plans are for the structure to be gutted to its shell and remade into the Triton Center, a mixed-use residential, commercial, and hotel project, with metal panels that ‘highlight’ to some extent elements of the original building’s design, by architecture firm ADD Inc. (update: the hotel will be a Hilton Garden Inn) Meanwhile the shades need a last minute salvation. If the sun shades can’t be saved in the ‘new’ building, maybe somebody can find use for them somewhere else.

The Underline is Beginning Construction in Brickell Next Year

The ‘Brickell Backyard’ section of the Underline.

The Underline, Miami’s planned ten mile linear park running underneath the Metrorail, has enough money to build the Brickell section, and expects to begin construction next year. The park has about $8 million in secured funding so far from a variety of public and private sources, with the latest chunk, a $600,000 grant, coming from Swire Properties and Brickell City Centre. Construction documents are underway with design firm James Corner Field Operations reports Miami Today. Meanwhile Meg Daly, CEO of Friends of the Underline, told us “Our target is to start building in the fall of 2017 in Brickell.” Exciting news people, exciting news.

Bomb Threat for Lunch Outside the Downtown Metrorail Station

Photo by Sean McCaughan.

Today there was a bomb scare underneath the Metrorail and Metromover tracks in Downtown Miami, just outside of the Government Center Metrorail and Metromover Station. At noon Metromover service was stoppped for, as the P.A. message put it, “temporary police activity.” (we were on our way to lunch and had to take an Uber instead) Around 2 pm police were seen directing people some distance away from a bomb-detonating robot between Government Center and the HistoryMiami Museum. The bomb itself could not be seen. Metromover service was still shut down (and we had to take Uber back to work). That’s all we know so far. Lunch was otherwise delicious.

Brickell’s Southside Park Has Finally Reopened

Southside Park, via Google Maps.

After being closed for two and a half years, Brickell’s Southside Park, one of the few green spaces in the neighborhood, finally reopened about a month ago. The park was one of those shuttered for remediation a few years ago when contaminated soil was discovered throughout many of Miami’s public parks and spaces, causing a major local controversy. Southside Park is just west of the Metrorail tracks between SW 11th and SW 12th Streets.

Terra’s David Martin Debuts his New Real Estate Column in Forbes

David Martin

A warrior and a poet? Meh. Maybe not, but David Martin, head of Terra Group and developer of Grove at Grand Bay, Park Grove, and GLASS, is now a developer and an author. He’s writing a twice-monthly column over at Forbes on ‘real estate development, design, and sustainability,’ beginning with a discussion on why more buyers in South Florida are end users these days as opposed to speculators. To summarize his point in just a few words: Miami’s a bit more grown up, and that makes a big difference.

Super Bowl in the Bag, the Dolphins Are Hustling on That Stadium

Miami Dolphins Stadium Construction. Photos via Miami Dolphins.

The Super Bowl is officially returning to Miami in 2020. However, the shade canopy at Dolphins Stadium, a massive structure now under construction, has to be done in about three months. The Dolphins play the Falcons August 25, meaning the awning has to be done by then. The rush to upgrade the Miami Dolphins Stadium is tight, and now comes with Super Bowl-sized stakes too.

Super Bowl LIV is Coming to Miami in 2020, Which is Just Perfect

Miami Dolphins Stadium rendering with new awning structure.

Today the NFL awarded Super Bowl 54 to Miami for the 11th time in 2020, four years from now. That’s a new record of Super Bowl games hosted in any single city, continuing Miami’s larger than life tradition of Super Bowl spirit, and perfect timing to take advantage of the brand-spanking-new improvements to the Miami Dolphins Stadium. (Recently known as Sun Life Stadium) The game’s real economic impact may be questioned, or bigger than expected, but hey, this is tradition. (Most recently called Sun Life Stadium, but soon maybe not) Giving Miami the yearly game in 2020 is also just clever as hell, with a little subtle Miami love sprinkled in. Written in Roman numerals, as Super Bowl numbers tend to be, this one is Super Bowl LIV. If Roman numerals spelling name of Miami’s biggest club doesn’t say it’s a Miami party, than what the heck would? Bottle service anyone?

Downtown’s Iconic Miami Tower Has Sold for $220 Million

The Miami Tower, an icon of the Downtown Miami skyline since its construction in 1987 to designs by starchitect I.M. Pei, has been sold to the Simitomo Corporation of America, for $220 million. The tall, slender wedge of a building is sheathed in glossy white and mirrored stripes, and puts on elaborate lighting displays nightly with a system of LEDs. (they recently replaced the original floodlights) Always a big visual statement on Downtown’s ambitions to be an au courante urban core, the Miami Tower had a series of owners over the years, and a series of names. It originally was home to to the il-fated Centrust Savings & Loan, and to some will probably always be remembered by its original name, the Centrust Tower.

Inside Jacob Brillhart’s Subtropical Modern Miami River Home

Inspired by a synthesis of the most iconic and minimal of ‘High Modernist’ houses (think of Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson’s Glass House) and the subtropical vernacular of a hot and humid climate, Miami architect Jacob Brillhart designed and built his dream home in Spring Garden, one of Miami’s oldest neighborhoods. The neighborhood and the house are both tucked in a tiny peninsula poking out into the Miami River.

Having completed the house a year or two ago (for much more on the Brillhart House and its design, check out his portfolio) and settled in with the family, the Brillharts opened it to the public over the weekend for Our House, “unique design and retail initiative,” as the invitation put it, with furniture, art, and design pieces all for sale, accompanied by a lecture and workshops.

Inside the warm-but-restrained, modernist vessel for living was a colorful smorgasbord of design, with just the perfect amount of well-selected clutter to make it feel cozy. Outside again, Jacob had another surprise: a half-built movable wooden vacation home, which he’s building in his back yard. It’s designed to be disassembled into a flat-pack and shipped to Eleuthera, in the Bahamas, where a gorgeous beach-front lot is waiting for it.