Arata Izosaki's Bass Museum project paved the way for future starchitects to work in Miami Beach, says the Japanese architect's contemporary David Gauld, who also credited the Art Basel fair with transforming the city's attitudes towards culture and architecture.
New York-based architect Gauld said that Isozaki's extension to the art museum in 2001 sparked a wave of big-name architects working in the city, like OMA, Herzog and de Meuron, and Sou Fujimoto.
"We were the first well-known architects to do a project here, and now everybody has," Gauld told Dezeen in an exclusive interview. "Miami at the time was very provincial. Boy it has changed since then."
The interview took place last week at reopening of the Bass Museum, following a renovation he completed in consultation with 86-year-old Isozaki ? the 1986 recipient of the Royal Gold Medal. New York-based architect David Gauld spoke to Dezeen at the reopening of contemporary art museum The Bass, which he recently renovated. Image courtesy of Zack Balber
Gauld was working for the Japanese architect when he entered a competition in 1993 to extend and renovate the museum on Collins Avenue, which occupied an art deco-style building that architect Russell Pancoast completed in 1935.
Gauld said that Izosaki pushed for Miami Beach to develop into the cultural hub that it is today.
"[Izosaki] told the jury to escape their destiny to be provincialised," he said. "It's become a cultural district h...