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

WYNWOOD WALLS GARDEN: an art oasis in the heart of Wynwood

Wynwood Walls Garden will create open space filled with art on the
edge of the famous Wynwood Walls and Wynwood Doors

PlusUrbia Design, in collaboration with Goldman Properties, designed the first major urban open space in the heart of Wynwood since the Miami-based studio’s award-winning Wynwood Revitalization District was enacted by the Miami City Commission. Wynwood Walls Garden will create a new gathering and art space on 0.43 acres adjacent to Goldman’s already world famous Wynwood Walls and Wynwood Doors.

PlusUrbia designed the space, which transforms vacant land at 260 Northwest 26th Street, to invite the visitors to immerse themselves in artistic expression. The Garden’s design serves to enable the display of great street art by incorporating sight lines that allow visitors to experience murals from various vantage points.  The angled benches, sloping planters and other elements create a perfect stage for artistic Wynwood "selfies."

"PlusUrbia worked to transition Wynwood from a neglected warehouse district to 24-hour, multi-purpose, mixed-use center for the arts. As a warehouse district, Wynwood had no open or green spaces. We are thrilled to be working with the Goldman Family – which once again has improved the livability and human scale of the district by providing a much-needed urban relief with a welcoming dynamic, artful space.” – Santiago Eliaschev, of PlusUrbia.

Wynwood Walls Garden has opened for Art Basel Miami. The artistic garden will remain open after Basel, providing an oasis in the heart of the thriving mixed use Arts District. The Garden, a showcase for the Walls of Change installation,  features repurposed shipping containers, planters that also provide seating,  artistic concrete and a natural textures.

PlusUrbia Design’s Wynwood Neighborhood Revitalization District recently earned the American Planning Association’s 2015 Great Neighborhoods Award. The innovative plan supports Wynwood’s creative industries, with mixed-use development, walkable streets, transit corridors and open space. Goldman’s Wynwood Walls Garden is the fruition of the NRD’s intent to add open space to the world-renown arts District -- born of former industrial zone that had none.

http://plusurbia.com/wynwood-walls-garden-an-art-oasis-in-the-heart-of-wynwwod/ 

WYNWOOD WALLS

Hundreds of thousands will come to greater Miami the first week of December to attend Art Basel Miami Beach.

Tens of thousands will be spent on admissions and tens of millions will be spent on fine art.

All of that is wonderful and our subtropical city is better of for it.

But the best art in all of South Florida is free.

The largest collection of outdoor mural art on earth is located in Wynwood, a still gritty former warehouse district just northwest of Downtown.

The late Tony Goldman's Wynwood Walls started it all.