THE SECOND SHORE
Virginia Key, Miami · Studio projectA LONG ROOF BETWEEN THE PARK AND THE WATER.
A pavilion on the shore of Virginia Key: a single long roof on timber posts, raised on a stone base above the dune, with a ramp from the park road, a garden of sea grass and coral stone, a tunnel through the base to the beach and a dock on the water.
The island has two shores, the one you arrive at and the one you leave from. The building is the walk between them: up the ramp, under the roof, through the garden, down to the dock.
A flat timber roof on slender posts with an oculus over the center, glass rooms that open fully to the deck, a concrete base clad in coral stone and bedded in boulders, and a timber dock that runs out past the dune.
Hurricane wind and storm surge on a public shore, and a brief that asked for shade, shelter and a view without a wall.
A pavilion that is mostly roof and air, and a path through it that ends on the water.
WHERE THE PARK ROAD ENDS
Virginia Key, at the coral rock revetment. The hammock is behind it, the beach to one side, Biscayne Bay in front.
EIGHT MOMENTS ON THE DECK
Arrive out of the hammock shade. Rise on one ramp for everyone. Walk the Sunrise Passage with the sun on your left. Pause in the garden room. Play in the sand. Stop at the edge with nothing ahead but water. Sit on the terraces. Swim off a dock that rises with the tide.
DRAWN APART
The roof, the program and the frame, pulled apart. A timber roof with round openings and a planted pergola over the glass room, a deck of wood seats and platforms, and under it glulam columns and beams on concrete piles.
UP THE RAMP
UNDER THE OCULUS
OVER THE EDGE AT SUNRISE
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