LANscapes: 12/2010

From firsthand experience overseeing the construction of one of the more elaborate and unique park spaces I have personally encountered - personally or professionally - it is with much anticipation that I continue to drive toward the completion of the recently endorsed "Miami Beach Soundscape" (formerly referred to as Lincoln Park). This will be West 8's first built work in the United States and has been, in 'concert' with the New World Symphony's ambitious vision for it's newly completed facility, a work of art and architecture that I think seeks to aid the evolution of music.

As David Byrne reflects on his own musical ruminations and hypothesizes a model of creativity; do artists write stuff for specific rooms? Do we have a place, a venue, a context in mind when we make things? From the sparse outdoor 'friendship circles' of the African desert to the hymns of gothical cathedrals, Mozart's parlors to the symphonic chambers of Carnegie Hall, we have been writing music for social situations, not musical situations. Miami Beach Soundscape seeks to provide a new venue that aids in the resistance against a pandemic of "arena rock", bars that lack the visual and physical presence of a "band", and the mutable accouterments of our personal MP3 players.

As predominantly visual thinkers, the conceptual "language of landscape" remains a powerful one. According to Anne Whiston Spirm ASLA the world around us imbued with both syntactical - "features (nouns), processes (verbs) and the principles governing their interaction" - and metaphorical layers. Our ability to use language as yet another tool to educate others about our environment through the shaping of our craft has given life to this once defunct surface of asphalt and oil stains at Miami Beach. In doing so, it is classical music that inspires this space, and it is the space that will undoubtedly improve the music; at least our appreciation of and for it.

Landscape "Nouns" (Features) of the Miami Beach Soundscape
"a SQUARK (park + square)" = slightly larger than a European square but not quite large enough to be a traditional park.

THE PROJECTION TOWER
Skin + Stem + Box
Darth Vader
Pandora
Shrek
The Bulb
The Onion

PERGOLAS (Shade Structures)Baskets
Amoebas
Pods
Monkey Bars

SOUND SYSTEM COMPONENTS
Ballet Bar
Media Hydrants
Bon-Bons
Fat-Boys

While its more iconic pieces - the pergolas - announce the parks entry points, the benches and pathways rise and fall with a subtle topographical undulation that resembles the calmer beginnings of a Mahler composition. As the 350+ palm, live oak and poinciana trees sweep a cool breeze across its green stage, the "ballet bar" embraces this places' audience with a sound that defies location. A term coined early on in the design process, one of the parks most distinct "landscape features" (nearly 180' long and 2' in diameter X 2) - in part inspires the space, but most certainly also improves the music.

Like the movable fold-up chairs of Bryant Park - icons of the place - familiarity with landscape gives space context. While the language of Miami Beach Soundscape is yet to manifest its iconic presence, it offers more than mere background material. It has generated a story - one complete with it's own list of references that deny definition only to those unfamiliar with the park.

Like some birds, we change what we do to fit the context. This "park project" seeks to synchronize the New World Symphony's precision-driven interior soundscapes with that of the atmospheric-driven soundscapes of the exterior. With a rather "humble" hall designed by Frank Gehry - the signature organic shapes introverted in this structure better known as "characters" - the park's mutli-million dollar AV system promises to deliver a listening experience that is comparable to that inside, but moves even further to deliver an environmental experience that is unrivaled.