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Frank Gehry's hall for an orchestral academy, with a 7,000-square-foot wall that plays the concert to the park for free.
Photo: Flip SchulkePublic domain
From 17th Street the New World Center looks like a white box with a glass front, which disappoints people who came for a Gehry. That is the joke, and it is deliberate. All the sculptural geometry — the curved, sail-like volumes Gehry is known for — is on the inside, floating in a six-storey glass atrium and visible from the pavement at night. He built the wrapper plain and put the drama where the music is.
The building opened in January 2011 for the New World Symphony, which is not a resident orchestra in the ordinary sense. It is an academy. Michael Tilson Thomas co-founded it in 1987 with Ted and Lin Arison to take conservatory graduates and prepare them for professional orchestral careers, and its musicians are fellows on placements of up to three years. They arrive, they train and perform at a very high level, and they leave for orchestras around the world. The roster turns over constantly.
That structure explains almost everything a visitor notices. Ticket prices are a fraction of what a major orchestra charges in a comparable hall, because the institution's purpose is training and audience development rather than box office. Programming is adventurous, because fellows are meant to be stretched. Concerts are often short, themed and unconventionally staged, with the hall's projection surfaces used as part of the performance rather than as decoration.
And then there is the wall. The east façade facing SoundScape Park is a projection screen of about seven thousand square feet, with a sound system distributed through the park. During the season the orchestra simulcasts selected concerts onto it live — the WALLCAST series — and those are free, outdoors, and open to anyone with a blanket. A symphony orchestra playing to a thousand people sitting on grass, four blocks from Ocean Drive, is a genuinely unusual thing for this island to have produced.
If you are in South Beach between autumn and spring, check the schedule before you plan your evening. It is the best free ticket on Miami Beach.
On 17th Street at Washington Avenue, a minute from the eastern end of Lincoln Road, with SoundScape Park on its eastern side.
Walking. One minute from Lincoln Road. Fifteen to twenty minutes north from Ocean Drive at 10th Street. Ten minutes south-west from The Bass at Collins Park.
Trolley and bus. The free Miami Beach Trolley's South Beach loop and the South Beach Local bus both serve 17th Street and Washington Avenue. On a concert night this is far easier than driving.
Parking. The 17th Street municipal garage is a two-minute walk, and the Pennsylvania Avenue garage sits immediately beside the building. Both fill during conventions, Art Basel week in early December and major performances. Metered street parking on 17th and Washington is enforced closely.
From the mainland. The Venetian Causeway arrives at Dade Boulevard, a few minutes north-west, and is the closest crossing. The MacArthur Causeway lands at 5th Street, about twelve blocks south. There is no rail service to Miami Beach.
Gehry's connection to the institution is long and personal — he had known Michael Tilson Thomas since Thomas's childhood — and the brief he was given was not a monument. It was a teaching building that also holds a concert hall.
The atrium. Behind the glass front, white curved volumes hang in a tall open space. These are rehearsal and practice rooms, sculpted and stacked. At night the atrium lights and the whole composition reads from 17th Street, which is the free view of the building and the best one.
The hall. 756 seats, small by concert-hall standards, arranged so no seat is far from the platform. Projection surfaces are built into the room itself and used during performances, which is unusual and occasionally divides audiences.
The east wall. A blank canvas of roughly seven thousand square feet facing the park, purpose-built as a projection surface. It is the element that turns a private concert hall into a public one.
The garage. The parking structure immediately west on Pennsylvania Avenue was designed as part of the same project rather than bolted on afterwards, which is a small thing that says a lot about how carefully this block was planned.
The plain exterior is the point. On a street of showy façades, the one building that could have shouted loudest whispers, and keeps the spectacle for the people inside and the people on the grass.
What it is. A live simulcast of the concert happening inside, projected onto the east façade and played through a sound system distributed across SoundScape Park. Not a recording, not a highlight reel — the performance, as it happens, with camera work built for the projection.
When. During the season, which runs broadly from October into April or May. WALLCASTs are scheduled on selected concert dates rather than weekly, so the schedule is the thing to check, not the season.
Cost. Free. No ticket, no registration.
How to do it properly. Bring a blanket; the lawn is grass and the park does not lay out seating. Some people bring low folding chairs and sit at the back so as not to block sightlines, which is the courteous arrangement. Arrive forty-five minutes early for a popular programme — the lawn area holds around a thousand and fills from the front.
What to expect from the weather. October and November evenings are warm and pleasant. January and February can genuinely be cool by Florida standards, and the park is open to the wind off the bay; bring a layer. Programmes can be affected by weather, so check on the day if the forecast is poor.
Food and drink. The park is city property and the usual park rules apply, so check the event listing rather than assuming. Lincoln Road is two minutes' walk for anything you need beforehand.
Tickets are cheap for what this is. Many performances have been published starting at around $25, which in a 756-seat hall buys a seat that would cost several times as much at a major orchestra. Prices vary by programme and by seat, and premium and gala events run much higher. Treat any figure as indicative.
Programmes are short and varied. The academy format produces chamber programmes, full orchestral concerts, late-night and themed events, and projects that use the hall's video capability. Read the programme description rather than assuming a standard two-half concert with an interval.
Open rehearsals have been part of the institution's public offering at various points, and they are an excellent way to see the hall and the training process for very little. Availability changes season to season, so check rather than plan around it.
Building tours. The New World Center has run architecture tours of the building, but scheduling varies. If seeing the atrium matters and there is no tour, the free version is to stand on 17th Street after dark and look through the glass, which shows you the sculptural volumes clearly.
Dress. Miami Beach is informal and the institution leans young. Nobody will look at you oddly in a shirt and trousers, and nobody will look at you oddly in black tie either. Bring a layer for the air conditioning, which is Florida-standard.
The New World Center stands at 17th Street and Washington Avenue, at the northern end of the walkable South Beach grid, with SoundScape Park wrapped around its east side.
One minute south is the eastern end of Lincoln Road, the pedestrian mall designed by Morris Lapidus, which means the pre-concert and post-concert options are immediate.
Two minutes west is the Miami Beach Convention Center, and behind it the Botanical Garden; the Holocaust Memorial is about five minutes further at Meridian and Dade Boulevard.
Ten minutes north-east is Collins Park and The Bass.
Fifteen to twenty minutes south is Ocean Drive, the deco strip and the beach.
Parking. The 17th Street municipal garage is the closest and the obvious choice; the Pennsylvania Avenue garage beside the building serves it directly. Both fill for major events and during conventions. On a WALLCAST night, walking or the free Miami Beach Trolley beats driving comfortably.
Trolley and bus. The free trolley's South Beach loop and the South Beach Local bus both serve 17th Street, and this is one of the better-connected corners of the island.
Operators run these trips past New World Center, or stop there as part of a longer route. We list what the booking data supports — not everything that mentions the name.
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Straight-line distances, so allow more on the road — the island is long and has one main parkway.
Park
Two and a half acres of Dutch-designed lawn and shade whose best feature is the building next door playing concerts onto its wall for free.
0.5–2.5 hoursFree, including the WALLCAST concert simulcasts and outdoor film screenings.360 ft away
Shopping
A Morris Lapidus landscape from 1960 that has become a chain high street, with three blocks at the western end that have not.
1–3 hoursFree to walk. Shops, restaurants, cinema and theatre tickets are not.0.3 mi away
Park
Two and a half acres of free, densely planted shade behind the convention centre — the coolest ground in South Beach in August.
0.5–1 hoursFree. Donations and memberships support the non-profit that runs it.0.2 mi away
Historic site
A memorial built by the survivors who settled on this island, designed as a single walk you are meant to take in order.
0.5–1.5 hoursFree. There has never been an admission charge.0.4 mi away
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Yes. The New World Symphony projects selected live concerts onto the roughly 7,000-square-foot east wall of the New World Center, with sound distributed through SoundScape Park, and anyone can watch from the lawn at no charge. There is no ticket and no registration. Bring a blanket, arrive around forty-five minutes early for a popular programme, and check the season calendar, because WALLCASTs run on selected dates rather than every week.
An orchestral academy rather than a permanent orchestra. It was co-founded in 1987 by Michael Tilson Thomas with Ted and Lin Arison to prepare conservatory graduates for professional orchestral careers, and its musicians are fellows on placements of up to three years before moving on to orchestras worldwide. That is why the playing is high-level, the programming is adventurous and the tickets cost a fraction of what a comparable hall would charge.
Not freely. It is a working concert hall and academy rather than a public building, though architecture tours have been offered at various times and open rehearsals have appeared on the schedule — both worth checking rather than planning around. The free alternative is genuinely good: stand on 17th Street after dark and look through the six-storey glass front at the white sculptural volumes hanging inside the atrium.
Yes, opened in January 2011. It looks unlike most of his work from the street because the exterior is a plain white box with a glass front, and all the curved sculptural geometry is inside the atrium. That was deliberate. On a street full of showy façades it is the quiet one, and the spectacle is reserved for the people inside the hall and the people watching the projection wall from the park.
Cheaper than the hall suggests. Many performances have been published starting at around $25, with prices rising by seat and by programme and going considerably higher for gala events. The 756-seat hall means there is no genuinely bad seat. Verify current pricing on the symphony's own listing, and note that the free WALLCAST projections in SoundScape Park are the same concert from a blanket on the grass.