What is the Latest Miami Art Hotspot?

Rem Koolhaas-Designed Faena Forum Art Space is all about art, money, power.

A rendering of the Faena Forum, Miami Beach, designed by Rem Koolhaas. Photo: courtesy Faena and OMA.

A major new Miami Beach arts space designed by Rem Koolhaas is scheduled to open its doors during Art Basel in Miami Beach in 2015. The institution, dubbed the Faena Forum, is the latest project from artistically-minded developer Alan Faena.

The 50,000-square-foot Faena Forum, at 32nd Street and Collins Avenue, will be a sister organization to the Faena Arts Center (FAC) in Buenos Aires, reports the New York Times. The institution will host cultural programming with a Latin American bent, embracing such diverse fields as the arts, urbanism, politics, science, and technology.

In Argentina, the Faena Hotel, which has helped spark a cultural renaissance over the last decade in Buenos Aires’s once-abandoned Puerto Madero waterfront neighborhood, now known as the Faena District, recently celebrated its tenth anniversary with a colorful roller disco party at the nearby FAC (see “assume vivid astro focus Brings Roller Disco to Argentina“).

Faena, per his website, claims to be in the business of “building utopias.” He hopes to create a similar Faena District in Miami Beach, developing six blocks of waterfront real estate into mixed-use properties including luxury apartments: Larry Gagosian is one of the buyers, according to real estate websites. Norman Foster and Brandon Haw will also serve as architects in the area, which will see several historic buildings renovated. The Faena Forum, intended to serve as the centerpiece of the new district, will host projects, performances, and events in its large, flexible spaces. FAC executive director Ximena Caminos will lead the development of the new institution’s mission and program.

The project also includes the Faena Hotel Miami Beach, an homage to old Hollywood glamor with creative design by Great Gatsby director Baz Luhrmann, which is currently under construction (see “A Peek at Baz Luhrmann’s Collaboration for Art Basel in Miami Beach“).


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