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client: AmericanAirlines Arena | Miami Heat
employer: DLRGroup
role: Project Architect | Interior Architecture | BIM
interiors : Studio K Creative
year: 2015 – 2016
renderings: mrlw
images: 601 Miami + Misc
Designed by Architectonica and constructed in 1999, this event space was part of the full scale development of the American Airlines Arena, in Miami Florida. The original tenant space was designed by the Rockwell Group for Gloria Estefan’s Bongo’s Cuban Cafe.
The original night club was a vibrant, active space with several bars, kitchens and dance stage.
In 2015, the space was to be renovated into the AAA Restaurant + Cafe, as event spaces branded as ‘601 Miami’.
The project itself was multi-faceted, with plenty of design nuances to navigate. On the face of it, it was an existing concrete shell, prestressed concrete roof and built to withstand the punishment of any tropical storm or hurricane that might wander onto the land. That was just the beginning.
There were spatial constraints, additional code restrictions, asbestos abatement reports, a fast-tracked rezoning for occupancy considerations, multi-phase project development and the seldom amusing ‘value engineering’ phase with redesigns. It was a challenge to be certain, and for me – a lot of design pivots and problem-solving on demand.
In order to properly identify existing conditions, I went to great lengths to construct the existing elements. Some of this was for my own entertainment, as I wanted to take full advantage of the this particular demo note:
I highly doubt that I will ever have the chance to use the phrase ‘pineapple element’ in my career, and I couldn’t let the opportunity pass by.
The renovated event center retooled the upper level to engage with the new outdoor concert space, and provide a VIP cabana with outdoor service.
The ability to close out sections of the event space to handle multiple venues at once was also desired. A new floor level & connecting walkway and staircase was also provided to add another bar area to the new cafe.
The kitchen area was also completely re-designed to support a revised menu and another catering services to the stadium as a whole.
Aesthetically, the event space was redone in a modern twist to a 1930s whiskey bar / speakeasy. It opened up to serve as a backdrop to a wide variety of event types, rather than a singular restaurant theme.
As an example – the final punch list and occupancy permit was obtained so that the Miami Heat could hold a celebration for the retirement of Shaquielle O’Neal’s jersey and number for his contributions to the team and community.
In the true spirit of BIM, I developed the event seating arrangements for live chair and table counts, and the resulting chair storage. This proved extra useful when providing various head counts to the AHJ over occupancy discussions.
I also developed the first stages of using area calculations from the model to determine occupancy, egress width, stair width, etc. It was small enough of a project to test process on, and there is enough additional code scrutiny in the city of Miami to warrant doing it.
Acoustics
Somewhere in the construction document and VE phase, the question was raised about acoustics. We’d be piping party and bar-level decibels into a 2-story concrete, steel and glass drum – and there was no way that was going to be a pleasant experience without some additional help.
Acoustics has always been something that have interested me, so I grabbed a couple of e-books, and with square footage take-offs from the model and an excel spreadsheet I built a tool to calculate the existing design. I took that information and developed design options with materials for what could be done in the space to mitigate bouncing sound waves of an environment filled with bar noise.
A week or so later, we got the RFPs in from acoustics engineers – with client approval hired a professional to do what I’d just done. Turns out – my math lined up with theirs, as did the design suggestions. But I’ve always been an entrepreneurial self-motivated learner. Took me a weekend. It took 2+ weeks of project time to hire someone else to perform the same duties and cost the project additional professional fees. It was certainly helpful – but from my personal perspective it verified that it was something that I could navigate without spending another $10k of project fee.
Tool Kit
BIM development was also something that I made sure was completely accurate with this project. I sourced and modeled the kitchen equipment for coordination with MEP, developed additional seating areas for an accurate headcount of occupancy for certain event situations. The collected Revit data was used to develop all of the code information and cross-reference that to the number of plumbing fixtures required and provided in the project.
This project would lead to developing a tool kit for live code data farming with a few imported schedules that I would end up using on countless projects over the following years.
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