PLUS URBIA DESIGN'S WYNWOOD WALLS GARDEN DESIGN ON FULL DISPLAY IN MIAMI NEW TIMES

WYNWOOD WALLS GARDEN SURVIVES BASEL AND LOOKS AHEAD

By Hilary Saunders Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Wynwood has its walls and its doors. It has its kitchen and bar and its brewing company too. And now, ready or not, the Wynwood Walls Garden is ready for neighborhood usage.

Officially opened last month in time for Art Basel Miami Beach and Miami Art Week, the Wynwood Walls Garden represents another project spearheaded by Goldman Properties, the real-estate and urban development company that revitalized/gentrified the area. Goldman Properties commissioned six artists to draw murals on discarded, repurposed shipping containers, which were then stacked on top of each other to create an installation sculpture. 

The Wynwood Walls Garden also hosts the new "Walls of Change" exhibit. An additional 14 artists were invited to paint their visions of change on the walls surrounding the garden. Five U.S. muralists — Crash, Cryptik, Hueman, Logan Hicks, and Magnus Sodamin — joined Case (Germany), el Seed (France), Ernest Zacharevic (Singapore), Fafi (France), INTI (Chile), the London Police (UK), Pichi & Avo (Spain), and Alexis Diaz (Puerto Rico). In total, these elements of the outdoor exhibit encompass nearly half an acre just west of the Wynwood Doors (260 NW 26th St.). 

Coconut Grove’s award-winning design firm PlusUrbia worked in conjunction with Goldman Properties to conceptualize the space. In particular, the firm contributed to the landscaping and artistic integration. According to Santiago Eliaschev, director of architecture at PlusUrbia, “The idea was to take the Wynwood Walls and Doors concept a step further by merging art and nature. The garden itself was designed around sight lines and vantage points to experience the murals. 

“In essence, the garden functions as a stage where the murals are the protagonists. It’s a serene place to relax in the shade, a retreat from the concrete and asphalt.” 

According to the Real Deal, the Wynwood Walls Garden could soon be home to a restaurant or other retail space. It wouldn’t be surprising, because Joey’s Italian Café and Wynwood Kitchen & Bar flank the original Wynwood Walls. 

In the meantime, though, the space is open to the public, now free from Basel traffic and tourists. “Wynwood is about exploration and discovery as much as it is edgy and unrefined," Eliaschev adds. "We incorporate all these elements into an urban landscape, an oasis that enhances the way you experience art.

“In whatever way this space is used, we hope people can appreciate and experience how art and architecture and landscape can be combined to create a unique place.”

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/arts/wynwood-walls-garden-survives-basel-and-looks-ahead-8152093 

 

Wynwood Walls gets bigger

PLUS URBIA DESIGN'S WYNWOOD WORK PRAISED IN HERALD ART BASEL BLOG

It has been an honor to be part of the PlusUrbia Design team work with the Goldman Family on Wywnood Walls Garden, next to the famous Wynwood Walls and Wynwood Doors. 

We are humbled to be lauded by Andres Viglucci, the Miami Herald's longtime urban affairs reporter -- and one of the best urban design writers on the staff of a major daily newspaper in the nation.

Here's the item:

Wynwood Walls, the curated graffiti-mural project that jump-started the neighborhood's revitalization, keeps getting bigger and bigger -- literally. And better, too.

The Goldman family just expanded the murals project onto a vacant, nearly half-acre property next door and turned it into an enclosed, landscaped garden designed by a prize-winning Coconut Grove firm, PlusUrbia.

And while the opening was timed for Miami Art Week, the good news for locals is they get to enjoy it year-round.

The garden features four new murals in Wynwood Walls' recently completed "Walls of Change" installation. One of the new murals is painted on the side of a stacked set of shipping containers, another on the side of a warehouse that opens onto the new garden. During this week, the warehouse is serving as a studio for artist Peter Tunney's newest endeavor, taking really big Polaroid portraits using a giant vintage Polaroid camera from the '70s.

But the garden is not just a canvas for art. Goldman Properties and PlusUrbia say the garden provides "urban relief" for the rapidly evolving Wynwood industrial district -- which, given its origins, never had any parks or green spaces other than vacant lots.

PlusUrbia's Santiago Eliaschev says the garden was designed to give visitors different vantage points from which to view the murals, including angled benches and sloping planters that also provide seating -- perfect, the firm boasts, for "Wynwood selfies."

If the firm name sounds familiar, that's because it's also responsible for the new Wynwood zoning plan that's meant to spur housing development and improve streets and sidewalks in the neighborhood while preserving its distinctive warehouses and funky vibe.

The PlusUrbia Wynwood Neighborhood Revitalization District plan recently won the American Planning Association's 215 Great Neighborhoods award.

The new garden is immediately west of Wynwood Doors, the Walls project's last expansion.

ANDRES VIGLUCCI

Posted by Miami Herald