1111 Lincoln Road by Herzog & de Meuron: Context, What Context?
During a recent trip to Miami, I made a quick visit to 1111 Lincoln Road, a development in South Beach’s Lincoln Mall, which I have been following for some time now. At first glance the renderings display a project that is at the very least, an exciting structural display that mimics the symbols of wealth displayed by the celebutantes of South Beach. Upon visiting South Beach and the 1111 Lincoln Road development, it became clear that the design and development are clearly foreign to the surrounding collection of 800 Art Deco structures located in South Beach’s Art Deco Historic District. This is a complicated scenario, and there can be arguments crafted for those for and against the development designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron.
Herzog & de Meuron Architekten:
Unless you have been living in a cave somewhere in Afghanistan for the past ten years, it is likely that you are familiar with the architecture of Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. Herzog & de Meuron are the design principals and creative forces behind the architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron Architekten. The architecture of Herzog and de Meuron has drastically evolved since the completion of the Tate Modern renovation in 2000, which proved to be a defining work in their careers and lead to the duo’s international fame. Herzog & de Meuron’s work has evolved in parallel with their fame, it seems that image and form have become the major focus of their current works. In the beginning their architecture possessed a high degree of sensitivity to context, and their design signature was barely perceptible from project to project. Their architecture in the early years could be compared to a finely aged wine or a carefully scripted play. Their approach to architecture now, is similar to a Hollywood summer blockbuster, packed with action, special effects, and rather than creating an architecture that could be read like a novel, their work is clearly readable to the masses similar to a comic strip in the Sunday paper. The evolution of Herzog & de Meuron’s work is what makes following their career exciting. It is rare for an architect to discover a style or process that leads to fame and success, but it is even rarer for a firm to reinvent their approach after finding fame and the public loving them more for it.
Despite this recent obsession with image and form, Herzog & de Meuron still maintain their roots as architectural renegades, which at this point is somewhat contradictory to their current focus. The firm lacks a website or any kind of presence on the internet, which is anti mainstream. One would expect after the completion of the Bird’s Nest for the Beijing Olympics that you would be able to go to their website and find information upon information about the project, but no such site exists. It is this apparent obsession with architectural image and form, which is contradicted or contrasted by the firms apparent lack of interest in promoting their own image on the internet that makes Herzog & de Meuron complex architectural personas.
Photo Gallery:
Tate Modern:
Prior to the completion of the Tate Modern by Herzog & de Meuron in 2000, a competition was held in order to find a solution for renovating the old power station. Herzog & de Meuron’s proposal was selected for its sensitivity and preservation of the existing structure. The details and forms generated all seem to respond to the existing spaces, and make the building and experience better with their addition. Now I am not going to delve deep into an analysis of the Tate Modern, but only want to note that the project represents an example of a similar project to 1111 Lincoln Road, but was completed earlier in Herzog & de Meuron’s career. Like the Tate Modern, 1111 Lincoln Road is an addition/adaptive reuse project, the context is historic, and the site is highly public, yet the architects solve the problem with two completely different solutions.
Context: Do, or do not. There is no blending.
I have always been a firm believer that if you are designing a new building on a campus or in a historic district that there are only two ways of doing so. You either need to design a building in the historic style of the context, or you need to design a structure that clearly indicates that it is of a different style or time period. I hate blending, and I hate architects that cannot commit. It seems that many architects try to blend existing styles with new styles when adding onto existing structures, and never commit to taking a do or do not approach. Without a do or do not approach, the new and old architectures are compromised, and the final product becomes a muddled mess. An anti-blending approach does not mean that the new structure should not complement the existing. This also does not mean that the new structure should not respond to existing orders or structures, on or adjacent to the site. Whig Hall by Charles Gwathmey is a excellent example of an addition to an existing historic structure, some might call this blending, but I strongly disagree. When analyzing the form of Whig Hall, it becomes quite clear which parts of the structure are new and pre-existing. The structure as it stands today is more exciting and actually better, because of Gwathmey’s design for the addition. Whig Hall is an example of an addition in a different style than the original structure. The new responds to the existing orders and constraints of the preexisting structure, and is again similar to the problem solved by Herzog & de Meuron in their design of the Tate Modern. (See the slide show above for reference photo of Whig Hall and Tate Modern)
1111 Lincoln Road:
1111 Lincoln Road is part of an addition and upgrade to the existing Sun Trust Building, which is a modern concrete relic from Miami’s modern past. At first glance, 1111 Lincoln Road looks like a new museum or a swanky new condo building just beginning construction, but in reality the structure is nearly complete and its program is not so cliché as a museum or condo tower. 1111 Lincoln Road is a parking garage, with retail at the base, styled in a way that one would expect a parking garage to look like in Miami. The site sits along South Beach’s popular Lincoln Mall, which is a pedestrian friendly avenue for shopping, food, drink, entertainment, and now parking.
Given the above context it seems that Herzog & de Meuron has done little to maximize their response to the given orders and constraints of the site. The new parking garage is made of concrete and glass like the existing Sun Trust Building, but unfortunately that is where the similarities stop. The connection between the two buildings is not visually strong, and is nothing more than an city sized butt joint. The old Herzog & de Meuron would have explored this joint and celebrated it, the new Herzog & de Meuron is focused on the image and the form, forgetting to study what is perhaps the most important detail of the project, the connection between the old and new. What is even more unfortunate is that it is not as if these are two programmatically unrelated structures, the parking garage actually services the existing Sun Trust Building. What would have been a more interesting approach, would have been if the planes of the parking structure engaged the existing building in a way that would make the composition more dynamic and express the circulation of professionals from the parking garage to the newly renovated office space of the Sun Trust Building. Another approach would have been to pull the mass of the existing structure into the new parking garage. There are many approaches or techniques that could have been implemented to make a stronger connection between the buildings. Both structures are horizontal, and Herzog & de Meuron’s design does incorporate an alternating vertical rhythm of horizontals, which is a play on the rhythm on the Sun Trust Building facade, but these moves are not strong enough alone to create a cohesive whole. I believe that Herzog & de Meuron know this, and that this is the reason that you have never seen the design rendered in its true context as I have photographed.
The sharp angles of the concrete structure contrasts nicely against the streamlined forms of the expensive automobiles and neighboring Art Deco structures, but what happens at the base of the building? The structure does very little to engage the public at the street level. The retail spaces at the ground level do not have the same lightness and transparency as the parking garage that sits atop it.The base lacks the sculptural spirit of the rest of the structure. It would have been more interesting to expose some of the angular columnar forms at the base, bringing the public mall inward, instead the sculptural garage sits atop a glass box, and again the connection between the base and the rest of the building is weak at best. Take a look at the renderings that are posted in the gallery above. Now is a good time to mention that Herzog & de Meuron also designed the landscaped plaza in front of the structure. Of all the missed opportunities on this project, the plaza is the most disappointing element and does nothing to enhance the design of the structure. It is interesting to examine the renderings of this project, because the renderings only focus on select views and never tell the full story of the structure, which is misleading to the public.
The strongest part about this project is the form, and the spirit of the project. Herzog & de Meuron have failed to maximize the opportunities presented by the given problem, and despite their weak architectural mechanics, they have managed to create an architectural form which is instilled with the spirit of Miami’s South Beach. The automobile is an undeniable symbol of status and wealth in America. The display of status and wealth is the whole reason Miami and the Art Deco style exists. Miami in its boom could be equated to the Dubai of the 1920’s. What car do you drive? How much money do you make? What designer labels are on your clothes? This is the culture of Miami and these are the things that matter. The Art Deco style in Miami was the result of the wealthy searching for a means to displaying their wealth in the homes that they lived in. Herzog & de Meuron understand this, and do not create a monument to the automobile as some critics have suggested, but rather create a billboard for wealth. The garage is a stage for the celebutantes of South Beach to display their wealth and gain the attention of tourist that visit the mall. The structure although architecturally weak, is undeniably South Beach.
Aside from context, Herzog & de Meuron did do a few things that went against standard norms for parking structures. An interesting detail is the treatment of the striping in the garage. It appears in the renderings that the concrete will be white washed, while the striping is black. Another interesting formal gesture is the vertical rhythm of the parking garage. Typically parking garages are repetitive vertically, featuring a consistent vertical ten foot rhythm. Herzog & de Meuron were granted the luxury of exploiting the verticality of the parking structure and creating a garage unlike any other. If I had to some up the design of the structure with two words it would be contrast and juxtaposition. The structure contrasts with nearly every element on the site. As mentioned above the angular forms and geometries contrast with the curves often found in the design of automobiles and the Art Deco style. 1111 Lincoln Road will not be remembered as a masterpiece of the Swiss architectural duo, but is an example of a mundane building typology, reexamined with a fresh set of eyes. For more information about this project, check out the 1111 Lincoln Road Blog.
On a side note I read a review on Eikonographia, and the author questioned why Herzog & de Meuron did not place the garage below ground. I found the comment to be funny because unlike other cities found around the world, Miami is built on a swamp, which means that the water table is very high and that you will find few basements or underground parking structures in Miami or Florida for that matter.
The de Young Museum designed by Jacques Herzog & Pierre de Meuron is both underwhelming and overwhelming. The structure’s interiors are underwhelming at best, and there are few spaces on the interior that capture the same spirit that is embodied by the structure’s unique exterior appearance. The exterior form and 
When going to Miami this weekend I was excited at the prospect of seeing my first Richard Meier building. Meier was one of the first architects that I was introduced to in my architectural education, and have always had an appreciation for his ability to take a consistent formal language 
Comment by giorgio righi riva — 09.10.06 @ 3:56 am
I agree,with you this problem of scale and context is similar at 40 bond street, one more problem there at 40 bond , the incontextual materials.
may be a not great architectural project, but is agreat work of art, yes is more artistic than architectonic.The last herzog meuron and similar architects that push on the aesthetic, formalism,exciting ways, they want give a message: the soul is more important tha human body, this is the end of pure pragmatism , functionalism, modernism.Not mean that is not attention to function but no more only functionality,sometimes is a prefet function of form and function sometimes the formal is more than function.Sincerely, i love art is the connection with man and God, and if this new architecture play a free style like artis , is agood thing.The new architecture is more artistic, and when we conteplate that we can enrich our spirit,and is a ispiration for the new artist generations, because many people dont go to museum,and is not interest in art, but when you make a big arch-sculpture like 1111 lincoln road,the people is obliged to see it.Yes is aeretical, not correct if you follow the architectural academics dogma, but this trasgression this confused mix, is a great art is a fusion they have fused the old and the new but without evident connection, is a hybrid, but i like this trasgression.
best
Giorgio
Pingback by City parking « rotational — 10.01.04 @ 4:57 pm
[...] Herzog & de Meuron, you try to invite the city into its structure, rather than close it off. 1111 Lincoln Road is a newly opened car park in Miami, situated on the border of its social downtown heart and its [...]