Lincoln Road Mall – 1111 Project
Filed Under Blog ·
One of the many great pleasures available to the residents and visitors to the city of Miami Beach, is enjoying the many shops, cafes, restaurants, galleries and theatres that make up the Lincoln Road Mall. Carl Fisher, the founder and developer of Miami Beach, originally named the street after his favorite president.
Following a $600,000 transformation in 1960, this stretch of Lincoln Road became the first pedestrian mall in America. This nine-block open air pedestrian mall extends from Washington Avenue west to Alton Road. The block between Lenox Avenue and Alton Road is currently undergoing a major tranformation, and although slightly behind schedule, it will add yet another major architectural treasure to our beloved Lincoln Road Mall.
At the entrance to this block you will find the Banana Republic store at 1100 Lincoln Road. This building was the former branch of the Chase Federal Savings and Loan and is historically protected. Enter the store and you will shop upstairs in the bank vault and pay for your items at the original teller’s counter.
The majority of this block on the south side is occupied by the Regal Cinemas South Beach, which is a hugely popular cinema and hosts many internationally recognized film festivals. If you look over to the north side of street, you will see the construction on the new Eleven Eleven Lincoln Road project. This site was until recent times an empty parking lot, however, it was the original site of the Miami Beach First National Bank building, which was the first bank founded in Miami Beach in 1921.
Robert Wennett, the developer of the 1111 Lincoln Road Project, arrived in Miami from Washington in 2003. After building a contemporary townhome overlooking the Miami marina, he then proceeded to purchase the SunTrust building on Lincoln Road. Following teaming up with Swiss artist Rene Buser, and Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, he then decidied to add an incredible open-air garage with floors up to 30 feet in height, a structure he terms a “parking sculpture.”
The Miami Beach Preservation Board approved the building variances and approved the impressive design, and Wennett agreed to extend the Lincoln Road Mall and pay for the park to be designed by the same architects as well. The estimated $70 million project involves renovating and expanding the existing SunTrust building to 50,000 square feet of retail and 100,000 square feet for office space for MTV, Nickelodeon and other creative businesses. It will also include a spa, a rooftop restaurant with 360-degree views, and five residential penthouses.
Featured in the Architecture section of the Art Basel Miami Beach magazine, Wennett described his development as a “Design-driven, experienced based venue. Another luxury mall would have been the kiss of death here. This is a cultural site as much as retail site, featuring tenants who will treat their spaces like evolving, curated art galleries rather than stores.”
I am looking forward to the completion of this exciting project and think that it will be fantastic new venue on this our world famous Lincoln Road Mall.
