Art Basel Conversations
left to right: Fred Bernstein, Hans-Peter Wessels, Jorge Gonzalez, Fortunat Dettli, Chad Oppenheim
Art Basel Miami Beach pulls together people from many different backgrounds and connects them through Art Conversations held close to the beach. Its these events I find so interesting during the annual art fair…away from the hoards of Art aficianados and in a more intimate setting where world class Architects/Designers/Cultural engineers/Artists etc gather to talk about Architecture, Art and Design. The title of this particular talk was ‘Art, Business and Architecture-How Basel and Miami Beach set the benchmark. My first reaction to that title was ‘well, do they?’ The panel tried to answer that basic question by referring to Basel’s slower pace of growth as opposed to Miami’s BOOM and bust cycle of development. Of course the political systems are somewhat different, but what was really apparent was the difference in the relationship between the private and public sectors in each city…whereby in Basel rather stricter building codes are in place and public transportation is well integrated into the urban fabric, but in Miami the power of the private developer has so often over ridden quality urban planning that diminishes the way of life for its citizens, combined with an almost pathological love for the motor car and all its sins. One is left with the distinct feeling that Miami could do with a severe dose of Swiss reasoning and zoning to knit its urban fabric together. Two Architects, Chad Oppenheim of Miami (who is doing some projects in Basel) and Fortunat Dettli ( a very refined modernist doing rigorous and beautiful Architecture in Switzerland) offered their views of working in Architecture. Oppenheim mentioned that the Architecture in Basel included excellent attention to detail…something that seems to be so often missing in Miami and Dettli gave us his somehat desultory reaction to the Architecture in general in Miami. I offered to give him a tour next time he’s in town, because I’m sure he hasn’t seen the BACARDI building! Thank Heavens for question and answer sessions….they are a dying breed…so often these days at lectures, there are either no opportunities for a two way dialogue or the person running the show wants to close early…not here…and kudos to Art Basel for encouraging this interaction…so I asked the following question to Jorge Gonzalez (Miami Beach City Manager) ‘How the hell did that urban monstrosity called a shopping center at Alton Road and 5th street make it through the planning process and why does the most visible entryway into Miami Beach have to have that incongruous Architecture and ignominious brightly colored, over the top Britto sculpture sitting in front of it?’ Jorge’s answer was actually pretty comprehensive and angled the argument toward the entrepeneurship of the private developer and that all necessary criterai were met for it to pass the planning process. Could this happen in Basel? Probably not…more room for more conversation here, I thought…still, the great thing was that this one question garnered about 25 minutes worth of reaction from the panel…the genesis of an idea was born to integrate the discussion between these two cities more fully and attempt to make more cross cultural connections, so that both Cities can learn from one another…Fortunat Dettli’s Architecture can be seen here http://www.morger-dettli.ch/ and Chad Oppenheim’s here http://www.oppenoffice.com/