Miami Design District, Discover the New Modern Art Mecca

The Miami Design District was once a scruffy, rundown neighborhood—a colorful but slightly sketchy place baking in the Florida sun. “When I started buying property there in the mid-1990s, it was a defunct historical area that had once been the center of furniture design,” recalls developer Craig Robins. Then, some 15 years ago, the art fair Art Basel Miami Beach—located a few minutes’ drive away, across the causeway—got under way, and something started to percolate: the idea of Miami as a true arts hub, not just a getaway for the elite of New York’s gallery and museum world. – by Ted Loos The Market #atMDD Art has long been the star of the Miami Design District, and it’s shining brighter than ever with the December 1 opening of the new Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. Now the Miami Design District is in phase three of four official development phases, as conceived by Robins and his team at the company Dacra. The whole area has been a blizzard of construction that is finally nearing completion, and a massive transformation has taken place. “This is the moment when people will realize the scale and the critical mass,” says Robins, who also founded the fair Design Miami in 2005. “It’s a great moment, and it’s happening organically.” Art has long been the star of the Miami Design District, and it’s shining brighter than ever with the December 1 opening of the new Institute of Contemporary Art , Miami. (Robins is such a keystone of the neighborhood that he donated the land for the museum.) Events in the district include performances by the Miami Symphony and classes. The ICA Miami had been housed temporarily in the Moore Building beginning in 2014 but has now moved into a boffo new home designed by Spanish firm Aranguren + Gallegos Arquitectos, with 20,000 square feet of exhibition space. It’s a relatively simple plan inside, focusing on spaces to highlight art, with a few fun touches outside, like a south facade with a geometric pattern of triangles, some of which are windows. The vibe is clean, modern, and forward-looking. The opening show, The Everywhere Studio, looks at the concept of the artist’s studio through works by Roy Lichtenstein, Carolee Schneemann, and 48 other artists. It’s curated by the institute’s wunderkind deputy director, Alex Gartenfeld. “Geographically, the Miami Design District’s location is advantageous for us,” says Ellen Salpeter, the ICA’s director. “You can go north or south easily, the causeway is a couple of blocks away, and it’s close to the up-and-coming Allapattah neighborhood.” (In case you were wondering where to look next in Miami, Allapattah is the place.) She adds, “We’re joined at the hip” with the district, and she couldn’t be happier about that. “Contemporary art, fashion, design—it all works together.” Kelley Walker’s Black Star Press and Press Star, Press Black, on display at the De la Cruz Collection. Le Corbusier by Xavier Veilhan, located in Palm Court. The new ICA is hardly the only art mecca in town. Miami is also famous for its private-collection museums, and one of the best is the De la Cruz Collection. It’s always worth a visit for its cutting-edge contemporary holdings. Outdoor public sculpture projects have been central to the Miami Design District’s vibrancy, too. Five new sculptures are coming this season, in addition to the 21 existing works. Three are large-scale concrete pieces designed by the late, great Conceptual artist Sol LeWitt, organized with the ICA Miami as part of a rotating program going forward. A work by Urs Fischer and one by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec will also be unveiled. Robins is proud of the Design District’s progress in the past two decades. “Everything just catapulted forward,” he says. “We’ve defined this as a place for culture.” This article originally appeared in Elliman Magazine.  Photos courtesy of Ra-Haus, Sharon Levy, Justin Namon, Kalley Walker and Robin Hill. Search elliman.com for your next  home in South Florida  and experience Miami’s revived artistic spirit first-hand.