The U-shaped basin, which resembles an aquatic version of the Circus Maximus (popularized in the 1959 film Ben Hur), is over a mile in length and opens onto a panoramic view of the downtown Miami skyline.Ĭandela set Marine Stadium’s grandstand on the north side of the causeway, so that spectators would have their backs to the sun while watching boat races in the basin. The master plan included space for the grandstand, a floating concert stage, restaurants, boat slips, and parking, as well as the design of the water course in a newly constructed basin carved out of the mangroves on the west side of Virginia Key, facing downtown. The firm, based in Chicago, noted the long tradition of public boat racing spectacles in the waters off Miami, dating to events organized by Miami Beach founder Carl Fisher in the 1920s. Burke Engineers and Architects to conduct a feasibility study and prepare a master plan for the project in 1962. The idea for a public boat racing facility originated in the Miami City Commission, which hired Ralph H. The stadium’s dramatic cantilevered roof is balanced on the other side of the road by the delicate tracery of Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome at the Seaquarium (1960). Marine Stadium is the most monumental of the causeway’s amenities, which include Virginia Key Beach Park (1945), laboratories for the University of Miami’s School of Marine Sciences (1953), and the Miami Seaquarium (1955). An alumnus of the Olmsted Brothers firm in Boston, Phillips designed several of South Florida’s most popular public landscapes, including Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and Matheson Hammock Park. Marine Stadium is one of a number of recreational facilities lining Rickenbacker Causeway, which was envisioned by Dade County Parks Commissioner Charles Crandon and laid out by landscape architect William Lyman Phillips in 1947. However, damage inflicted on the roof by Hurricane Andrew has left the building unusable since 1992, and it currently awaits structural rehabilitation. Designed by Hilario Candela, a 28-year-old Cuban émigré in the office of Pancoast, Ferendino, Grafton, Skeels and Burnham, Marine Stadium is remarkable for its boldly cantilevered concrete roof and stunning site planning. When the building opened in December 1963, it was the first facility of its kind-an arena intended specifically for watching motorboat races-built in the United States. Miami’s penchants for dramatic architecture and spectacular entertainment have produced numerous fascinating buildings, but perhaps none as well-loved and ill-fated as Miami Marine Stadium.
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