Miami: Discovering the Marine Stadium

After greetings and refreshments at the AIA Gold Medal reception, we embarked on our next adventure: Discovering the Miami Marine Stadium. The causeway was closed so we spent almost two hours in gridlocked traffic trying to get off the island of Miami Beach and down to Virginia Key, normally a 20-minute drive. On Collins, we shared the road with a man in a power chair weaving through the morass of traffic wagging his finger at desperate drivers. At another point in the circuitous journey, traffic finally began to flow; just as we began to move through the intersection, an elderly man in a wheelchair slowly, slowly wheeled his way across the street while we waited, waited. This is Florida. Plenty of other adventures while we tried to escape the island...we were pretty crazed by the time we reached Virginia Key. It seemed a miracle when I finally saw the concrete roof form of the Marine Stadium rising above the palms on Virginia Key.We were surprised to see that the fire department seemed to be using the building for drills. Their presence in uniform and the fences and numerous No Trespassing signs could have dampened our spirits, but instead spurred us onto the challenge, not to mention our arduous trek to reach this point. We had to get in, to make it all worth it.After trying one side, through the fence and onto the substructure, we tried the other side, hoping to remain out of sight of the firemen and reach the seating area.The obstacle on this side was the large earth mover. From its platform, we had a great view of the stadium. It was almost enough; we hesitated then kept going toward the building, through another fence and we were in -In addition to the firemen, this abandoned structure was also being used for a photo shoot - for mens' underwear. Interesting...It was all worth it! What an amazing structure. We admired the design and craftmanship as the sun set on Miami. Can we still achieve {such dynamic} forms with poured in place concrete? The trend seems to be to complicate the wall section with a multiplicity of materials and cover it up with concrete panels.Better Photos of the Marine Stadium HERE.