Miami Beach Library

In designing the new Miami Beach Library we have carried out our commitment to place and tradition with a building that recalls and reinforces the stylish yet relaxed modernism of Miami Beach's architecture, capturing not only its clear shapes that work so well in the intense sunshine but also the garden-like sense of oasis of shaded courtyards that provide a welcome refuge from busy streets and cloudless skies.

The creation of a new cultural arts campus surrounding Collins Park offers the opportunity to redefine and reinvent this strategically located park as a town square for Miami Beach, which currently has no commensurate civic gathering place or community green. This plan, re-establishing the historic connection of Collins Park and the Bass Museum with the Atlantic Ocean, draws additional strength from the location at its periphery of the new Library and the new home for the Miami City Ballet, which together will attract a large and diverse population.

While the Collins Park Cultural Center improvements and Library design alike build upon the past, they look forward to a vital future. They are each in their way open stages for the public — for special celebrations, festivals, and concerts that can be held in the park; for lectures, readings, and story hours in the Library. Moreover, the art park and the Library are the front yard and the living room for the City — places where residents and visitors can gather to give and share the special pleasure of the place and its culture.