Cutting the Red Tape
New World Symphony Park Gets a New Design Team

By Lee Molloy

When the budget for the parking garage at the Frank Gehry-designed New World Symphony campus ballooned from roughly $15 million to almost $17 million, Miami Beach commissioners asked New World to either get Gehry to lower his fee to design the park surrounding the new concert hall, or find a less expensive alternative.

Gehry decided that he would rather quit than lower his $1.9 million fee, and walked away from the project in April.

The move meant that New World would have to find a replacement design company that had the necessary chops to step into the shoes of arguably the world’s most famous architect.

At the July 15 Miami Beach Commission meeting, commissioners rubber-stamped the selection of West 8 New York, Inc. to design the park.

The selection process, however, was not without controversy.

Former Miami Beach Mayor Niesan Kasdin, who is also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the New World Symphony, reminded commissioners the original agreement was that New World would design, develop and construct the park, and the city would fund it. Furthermore, the “developer will select at its sole discretion all contractors,” Kasdin said July 15.

According to Kasdin, the reason for doing business this way was to avoid having to comply with the red tape of the city’s bid procedures.

“Allowing the New World Symphony to develop the park with city money expedites the process,” Kasdin said.

Commissioner Victor Diaz, who had been a firm supporter of Gehry staying with the project was not happy.

“You’re delivering this park one year after the grand opening,” Diaz said. “You didn’t really expedite anything.”

Diaz was also not pleased with being left out of the process of selecting the new designers.

“The right result does not justify the wrong process,” he said.

Kasdin countered that both the concert hall and parking garage would be completed on time and that city staff had attended all meetings in the process. He then accused Diaz of playing politics.

“You are taking lemonade,” Kasdin said, “and making it into a lemon.”

At the request of Commissioner Jerry Libbin, City Attorney Jose Smith opined that the contract gave New World, and not the City, the authority to select a replacement designer. The commission, however, had to approve the choice.

Still not happy with how things were being handled, Diaz returned to the citrus metaphor.

“If the process that you follow to get the lemonade is not right, I will tell you,” Diaz told Kasdin. “Your lemonade may be tasty but you should do it the right way.”

Ultimately, the commission voted to go with the recommendation of the selection committee, which was chaired by Robert Wennett, the developer of the 1111 Lincoln Road project.

Wennett explained to the commission that there were 13 submissions in total and that the winning bid by West 8 had the unanimous support of the committee, which included the assistant director of the Miami Beach Planning Department, William Cary.

“We ended up with one of the most talented designers in the world today,” Wennett said, adding “we should really be rejoicing at this point.”

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