SoundScape analysis, Thiago Menezes.

This reading aims to analyze West 8’s Soundscape and how its built environment (architecture, landscape, furnishings, sidewalks and streets) encourages and discourages public use.

The Soundscape Park is located off of Lincoln Road and Drexel Ave in Miami Beach and faces Frank Gehry’s New World Symphony, which is hereby referred to as NWS for the rest of this reading. Built in conjunction with the NWS, the park was designed not only as a public space, but a quasi-private event venue. As the former, the park is not quite successful, given its location and associated climate. However as the latter, the park provides not only a singular cultural event, but also various levels of public engagement and human interaction given your coordinates within the park it.

Let’s first look at the park’s shortcomings in order to understand why it fails as a public space, thus reinforcing the reasons why it succeeds as a quasi-private event venue.

Miami’s weather is one of bright, humid hot days. It is no coincidence that most parks found in Miami are full of water such as lakes, rivers, ponds, and shade such as built hardscapes and most importantly shade trees. Some of the most commonly found shade trees is Miami are the seagrape (Coccoloba uvifera), live oak (Quercus virginiana) and royal poinciana (Delonix regia). Each of these trees has a minimum radius of 20’ meaning they provide over 1,200 squared feet of shade.

Soundscape Park is comprised mainly of palm trees, which are very poor providers of shade, hence it is no surprise that one finds Soundscape Park empty throughout most of the day, making it a poor public space, a least during day time. (See figure 1)

Figure 1 - Typical Day at Soundscape

However, that is not to say that the palms weren’t strategically chosen for the park’s true purpose, the quasi-private event venue space.

The park’s primary purpose is being able to accommodate a vast amount of people in one spot facing NWS’s blank wall, much like a theatre, and allow for limited viewing from the rest of the park. (See figure 2) Given the palms chosen are very skinny and tall, one is able to watch the Wallcast from mostly anywhere. In this sense, not only does the park generate a great space for watching the Wallcasts, it also allows for multiple levels of engagement and human interaction given the chosen viewing placement.

Figure 2 - Space and plant selection

As the wall cast takes place, one finds the emergence of at least four clearly defined types of users, dictated by their placement in the park, generating programmatic zones. The sequence follows this order: user chooses their desired level of engagement thus positioning themselves relative to the wall in turn generating zones. (See figures 3 and 4)

Figure 3 - Users and Zones

Figure 4 - Users and Zones

Let’ now look at these users and the types of zones they create. (See figure 5)

1) User: Movie watcher / Zone: Front and center

These are the users who visit the Soundscape only on the dates of the wallcasts. The wallcast is their main event of the evening. They bring chairs, tables and blankets. They treat the wallcast as a movie theatre; no phones, no talking, no getting up, while expecting the same from others around them.

They position themselves front and center at the main grass area with no palm trees, situated in front of the wall and in between all the speakers. This zone gives you the best viewing angle and allows for the best sound experience, given that the screen and the subwoofers are right in front of you, and the speaker towers to your sides.

Here the zone is defined by the green landscape and mechanical aspects of the park; speakers, screen and subwoofers.

2) User: Wallcast viewer / Zone: Back and center

Much like the movie watchers, these users are at the soundscape only when the wallcasts are being shown. However these users treat it a bit more lightly than the previous. They still want the movie theatre experience, however knowing that they are in a public space, they neither expect nor allow total silence. They walk around, meet friends who are late, text and talk on their phones, etc. To them the wallcast is not the main event of the evening, but a prelude to the rest of the night. The park is but a meeting place and the event is a great bonus. To these users Lincoln road is probably their main destination as the evening progresses.

They situate themselves right behind the movie watchers. Here, a sidewalk and a concrete bench in between the two center green spaces separate their zones. While slightly elevated, they are further from the screen and subwoofers, however still in front of the projector and in between the speaker towers.

This zone is then defined by the sidewalk, concrete bench and speaker towers.

3) User: Picnic Crew / Zone: Off center towards Lincoln Road

As suggested by their tittle, these users are there to have a picnic and enjoy the weather while getting a great show. They are not concerned with noise or movement in or around their zone. This is their cultural event. They bring wine and cheese, blankets and baskets, usually choosing a spot in the grass by some palms, which they can lean against. They sit and watch, while they eat and discuss everything around them, the wallcast itself, the people around them, the park and their personal lives. These users will stay at the park after the show is over and enjoy the rest of their evening as they were.

Their zone is off center, moving south towards Lincoln road. Here they are now outside the “sound box” created by the speaker towers and can now have conversations with ease. These users are also glad that the palms are palms, giving them a limited, by rather pleasant, view of the wallcast. This zone is not only defined by a grass area where you can find some palms, but also by the speaker towers and zones 1 and 2.

4) User: Passer byer / Zone: None specific location

These users are not really users. They are the ones who either happened to be walking around the area or were at the park solely to be at the park; both unaware that there was anything going on that night. They walk around the sidewalks and some even venture into perimeter of the park and it’s concrete pathways. They may take a seat and enjoy the show, however not for a long time, as this was not their main destination tonight. They are respectful of the zones they might encounter. For instance, if walking past the screen by Zone 1, they will respect the silence and observe the movie watchers. If walking past the picnic crew, they might engage in conversation and ask what the event is all about. This zone is not clearly defined, but rather dictated by all other zones and users of the park.

Figure 5 - Zones

Given the above statements, it becomes clear that the park fails as a public space for two reasons; very limited shade and the necessity of an event in order to active it. Thus we can conclude that on its own the park is nothing but a few concrete patterns and palms and can flourish when an event is in place, making it a quasi-private event venue space.