The vision of the North Beach Yard is to be an entrepreneurial hub and incubator of culinary businesses. Built upon the success of the Wynwood Yard by Della Heiman and Kenneth Lyon, it was the brainchild of Commissioner Ricky Arriola to activate one of the coveted North Beach West Lots with a temporary use, until it matures into more permanent ones.

Closely following the original Master Plan by DPZ CoDesign, we set out to further develop and nurse it during the natural progression from concept to reality, making only necessary refinements while staying true to the essentials. As proposed, the North Beach Yard shall include up to ten stationary food trucks (whether in truck or trailer format), up to four restaurants, a main bar pavilion, a main stage for live performances with an open lawn in front, an organic garden, a farmer’s market featuring up to twenty market stalls for food and beverage products, or retail vendors focused on locally sourced or sustainable ones, and a venue for cultural happenings. Fitness and yoga classes, workshops, art lessons, culinary classes, and myriad other events shall be held for the public at large.

The parti preserves as many existing trees as possible, and is strongly influenced by the fact the former Classroom Building was determined to remain and become the Event Hall for the most formal and permanent part of the program, where fundraisers, balls, non-profit events, and many other social gatherings will happen, all part of the North Beach Yard commitment to provide community programming, oftentimes free, as spelled out in their Lease Agreement with the City of Miami Beach. Those intended uses of the only refurbished building to remain are a strong incentive to have the dining areas of all restaurants in its immediacy, so they enrich each other with their foot traffic, smells, sounds, and views. That proximity is fundamental for the success of the overall yard, as it defines the character of what will be the single-most important space within its confines: the two-level plaza occupied by the al fresco dining terrace of the Event Hall, the small Bar in front, and the indoor and outdoor seating areas of the two signature restaurants, Della’s Bowls and Charcoal. Restaurant kitchens must be close to their dining areas, and if those dining areas are facing the former Classroom Building the only logical place for the former are behind them, with their backs to Collins Avenue yet with as concentrated a footprint as possible. The shared back-of-house container building will be quite hermetic, avoiding the expected messiness associated with it.

A main axis, running diagonally across the site, connects this core space by the former Classroom Building with an entry plaza at the corner of Collins Avenue and 81 Street, under the shade of a massive Sea Grape tree. This proposed main entrance to the North Beach Yard feeds off the preferred pedestrian route from the neighborhood to the public park and beach across the street, with the new Morning Glory café and Beach shop as the first bait, while the diagonal promenade between the two created plazas offers the longest possible straight link between them, maximizing the number of start-up retail businesses along the vital foot traffic they need to thrive. In so doing, it acts as a veritable Main Street from which customers will filter through the container shops. The initially proposed “Butterfly” canopies along the link center line morphed into shallow-pitch ones, with tensioned cables and posts on the side, inspired on the Miami Harbor cranes and configured to clear the view along the main drag and provide a rhythm of shade and sunlight. As one approaches the repurposed Classroom Building, the number and shape of steps at the front terrace was modified from the original rectangular configuration, stopping at three to avoid guardrails, and engaging the new axis to accomplish a more defined perspective terminus. This rearrangement also allows for a funneling of pedestrian traffic by its side, potentially spilling over into Charcoal’s uncovered seating area under the trees, while putting tables and chairs atop the terrace and obstructing a clear view from either end of the “Main Street”, as it invites for discovery.

Food trucks and trailers line the West and South sides of the block, defining the edge of the large space with the Main Bar’s “Circus” tent, Lawn, and Stage.

The trucks' area is the only non-permeable pavement throughout the complete site, for it is to receive greasy water runoff that will drain towards the continuous French drain along the back, catching it before it drenches the landscaping strip where preserved trees and new tall shrubs hide the trucks from the alley. This area will also be rife with utility boxes on the pavement, under each intended food truck/trailer location, which is efficient due to their proximity to utility main lines along Collins Court. The non-vending side of the trucks is not pretty to look at, servicing them with food boxes and taking out their trash is messy, and their cleaning and maneuvering are probably not the kind of activities we would want next to Collins Avenue. They must also be close to the loading berths and their driveway access and egress. Besides, the sheer height and volume of the trucks in immediate proximity to the stage and open lawn contribute to light and sound blocking and deflecting.

A continuous raised platform brings users closer to food truck serving window height, and works as a physical element that separates the public and trucks’ area while embracing the “Circus” tent, providing stepped informal seating around the Main Bar and Lawn without resorting to benches. A continuous modular canopy provides shelter from the elements along the platform top, high above the trucks and trailers.

Given reasonable concerns from residential neighbors, live entertainment activities will be strictly regulated by the Lease Agreement, which is very clear as far as hours of operation and noise control are concerned. Towards that end, a self-monitoring system of small speakers distributed all over the property, rather than a few large ones by the Stage or Lawn, will enable good sound levels throughout the North Beach Yard without increasing decibels at any given spot. That renders the ultimate location of the sound source relatively irrelevant.