Bacardi Building, Downtown Miami

I was disoriented in downtown Miami, trying to make my way back to the highway, familiar territory. I passed this building and passed it again, parked, got out of my car, explored, photographed, and admired. There was someone else that was doing the exact same thing. This was probably two months ago. It's been on my mind.

So the Bacardi Building is actually two buildings and a public plaza. It is an example of Miami Modern, a combination of international style and Latin/Caribbean/tropical design. It's located at the corner of Biscayne Boulevard and 21st Street. (Mizrahi). Now I actually know how to find my way back!

The first building was a tower built in 1963 by Puerto Rican architect Enrique Gutierrez of Sacmag International. It's an eight story tower housing the Bacardi Museum on the first level, a dining room on the top level, and office space on the floors in between. Twenty-eight thousand white and blue hand-painted 6" x 6" ceramic tiles cover the north and south facades in a Spanish style mural by Brazilian artist Francisco Brennand. The west and east facades are made up of thermopane, smoke-tinted glazing and are articulated by vertical white marble tiles and exposed structural concrete. (Kunkel).

The second building is a two-storey square  cantilevered 24 feet on all sides off a central core, 47 feet off the ground. It was designed by architect Ignacio Carrera-Justiz from Coral Gables, Florida and built in 1973 to house the finance and accounting offices. Constructed to withstand hurricane force winds, the walls are made of one inch thick hammered glass tiles composed in beautiful tapestries designed by French manufacturers/artists Gabriel and Jacques Loire after an original painting by German artist Johannes M. Dietz.

Each floor is hung from the roof by 28 tensor rods, supported at the center by the concrete-reinforced central core. The load on each tensor is transferred to the roof in which a crisscross system of post tension beams carry the load from the tensor rods through the central core, plaza and garage, to the foundation. (Kunkel).

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 The cantilevered building is originally what caught my attention, but then when I began to explore the entire site, I really became interested to know more. The online sites do a fine job of giving enough practical details, but there are so many little things that make this particular site wonderful. I think they don't give the plinth enough credit. Yes, practically, a garage sits under it; but raising the entire site up gives everything a completely different feeling, a sense of serenity and proof that yes, it holds something more valuable than the surroundings almost. I immediately think of the plinth at the Taj Mahal, it makes a great building into something sacred.
Also, the floating, symmetrical stair cases that lead to the first level in the tower seem to weigh nothing, as if someone would glide up them into the building.

I'm unfamiliar with 'MIMO,' (Miami Modern design) because I've only thought of Miami as an ode to art deco. But this building is distinctly Miami: which is kind of incredible when you think about it's international style skeleton by American and Puerto Rican architects covered in tiled surfaces by French and Brazilian designers based on German and Spanish art.

Pretty cool, huh?

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These buildings seemed to be unoccupied when I found them. The stairs leading up to the elevated plaza were blocked off with chains and small signs warning against trespassing. I called an online number provided to inquire about public tours. The woman on the other end of the line told me that they no longer hold tours because Bacardi headquarters relocated in November 2009 to a new site in Coral Gables. There is only a security guard and maintenance.

...It makes sense that the Bacardi's would have such wonderful USA headquarters when I read that the other Bacardi buildings in Mexico and Bermuda were commissioned by Mies van der Rohe. Obviously, this family valued good architecture and supported international design. (Kunkel).

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Works Cited:

Kunkel, Joe. "A Proud Symbol of Latin Modernism." Jetset - Designs for Modern Living. 2000. 23 March 2010       http://www.jetsetmodern.com/bacardi.htm.

Mizrahi, Adam. "Historic Bacardi Building." Urban City Architecture. 7 May 2009. 23 March 2010      http://www.urbancityarch.com/2009/05/historic-bacardi-building/.