Since the 1980s, Miami has experienced a magical transformation from cultural wasteland to global destination for contemporary art. Greater Fort Lauderdale also enchants with the arts and entertainment, investing more than $200 million in new metro-area cultural facilities since the 1990s.
With both destinations also investing in convention center expansions and headquarter hotels, this cultural vibrancy, reason alone to visit, memorably enhances the multi-dimensional group appeal.
Fort Lauderdale Promotes Quality of Life Through Arts
Closely tied to economic development, quality of life is a strategic priority in Greater Fort Lauderdale and Broward County, with major drivers including the arts, culture and entertainment.
The Greater Fort Lauderdale CVB’s unique “Underground”-branded Film, Music, Fashion & Create division has dramatically elevated the destination’s cultural identity and appeal.
[Related Content: Q&A With Noelle Stevenson on South Florida's Arts Boom]
This rising international profile includes events like January’s inaugural Art & Design Week, anchored by the third-annual Art Fort Lauderdale. The increasingly important live-music scene includes the Riptide Music Festival and this April’s eighth annual Rock the Ocean’s Tortuga Music Festival, with headliners that include Kenny Chesney and Flo Rida.
“Our vibrant arts and culture scene makes it easy to inspire attendees,” said Ed Simon, the Greater Fort Lauderdale CVB’s senior vice president of convention sales and services. “The destination is filled with hidden gems and convention-defying creative hot spots, such as FATVillage (Flagler Arts and Technology), Fort Lauderdale’s creative incubator and arts district, and the Downtown Hollywood Mural Project, which offers a great backdrop for teambuilding.
"We can connect you with thought leaders and experts from our cultural hubs and other industries, such as technology, marine, aviation and the life sciences. Embrace the unconventional and become an architect of imagination in Greater Fort Lauderdale.”
Local dreamers include developer Doug McCraw. Around the time that Tony Goldman was re-envisioning Wynwood, McCraw began reimagining four blocks of former auto repair shops and warehouses just above downtown Fort Lauderdale as artistic “wonderlands.”
Today, his FATVillage has put Fort Lauderdale on the national art map.
The booming neighborhood’s attractions include restaurants, bars, coffee shops and the ArtWalk celebration on the last Saturday of each month. Rentals include indoor warehouse and gallery space, and an outdoor courtyard surrounded by murals.
FATVillage ARTWALK, Credit: Greater Fort Lauderdale CVB
In 2011, Arron Rimpley and Gregg Whittecar began transforming the dilapidated Graves Museum of Archeology and Natural History into a visionary new cultural space.
Opened in 2012, their Gallery of Amazing Things offers 40,000 square feet of gallery and event space for diverse corporate and social gatherings.
Housed in a fetching Modernist building in downtown’s Riverwalk Arts & Entertainment District, the visual arts-focused NSU Art Museum, from 1958, offers versatile event hosting and teambuilding art classes with professional instructors. The 22-block district also offers the Florida Grand Opera and multivenue Broward Center for the Performing Arts.
Other metro-area venues include the historic Parker Playhouse, Miramar Cultural Center, Symphony of the Americas and Art and Culture Center of Hollywood. Broward County’s own internationally recognized Public Art & Design Program, which includes the Artist in Residence project at currently under-expansion Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
Culture Drives Innovation in Miami Beach
“Embedded in everything we do, art and culture together are a driving economic force that brings people to Miami and Miami Beach,” said Brandi Reddick, cultural affairs manager for the City of Miami Beach.
The experience begins at Miami International Airport, where significant works include A Walk on the Beach. Seen by 40 million travelers each year, Michele Oka Doner’s 9,000-foot-long terrazzo walkway, inlaid with bronze and mother of pearl elements, evokes Miami’s natural environment and resources.
The installation is one of some 700 site-specific works commissioned since 1973 under Miami-Dade County’s pioneering Art in Public Places (MDAPP) program.
Reddick, formerly MDAPP’s curator and artists manager, said that “art establishes a sense of place, which flows throughout the destination.”
That includes the Miami Beach Convention Center. December 2018's ribbon-cutting for the $620 million reimagined venue included the unveiling of German abstractionist Franz Ackermann’s exterior About Sand mural. Curated by Miami Beach’s own Art in Public Places Program, the work forms part of an unprecedented public art investment.
“It’s the largest single commission by a municipal program in the nation,” Reddick said of the $7 million collection, with another five works from internationally renowned artists being installed this year.
Discoveries surround and extend the convention campus. Frank Gehry’s event-capable New World Center, home of the New World Symphony, videocasts concerts on a 7,000-square-foot external projection wall for free public viewing in adjacent SoundScape park, which also hosts a free monthly outdoor yoga series. The venue’s sound and video installation Sonic Dreamscapes is another Art in Public Places commission.
Relaunched in 2017 following the $12 million expansion of its landmark 1930 Art Deco home, the Bass (1964) ranks among the Southeast’s premier contemporary art museums.
Other group venues include The Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theater; Florida International University’s (FIU) provocative Wolfsonian Museum; Miami City Ballet; and Miami New Drama, resident company of the 1935 Colony Theatre.
From Spanish Mediterranean to Art Deco, distinctive architecture, such as Morris Lapidus’s still-iconic Fontainebleau Hotel (1954), has long defined the scene. Architecting the Miami look since 1977, trailblazing firm Arquitectonica contributed the wavy heat-reducing curtain wall and other elements at the reimagined Miami Beach Convention Center.
The firm’s influence extends to Miami, where the compass of diverse cultural coordinates points in all directions.
Miami's Art Scene Remains Strong
Other Arquitectonica-designed group venues include the Miami Children’s Museum along the MacArthur Causeway, and downtown Miami’s waterfront American Airlines Arena. Neighboring the latter, Museum Park houses two preeminent institutions.
Landscaped by ArquitectonicaGEO, the Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) features canopied outdoor plazas cascading with vegetation and modern indoor spaces.
Opened in 2017, the new $305 million Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science features a suspended, 500,000-gallon aquarium and panoramic outdoor space. Across the MacArthur Causeway, the globally renowned Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts was a major renaissance catalyst in 2006.
Imagined by late developer Tony Goldman around the year 2000, the arts-driven rebirth of Wynwood, a gritty former industrial zone in Miami’s core, has created a tourism blockbuster.
Opened in 2009, Wynwood Walls is an event-programmable open-air gallery featuring giant murals that extend throughout the multi-block neighborhood, where innovative operators include Plant the Future.
Wynwood Walls Mural by Ron English, Credit: Jeff Heilman
One of Miami’s most Instagrammed-spots, Paloma Teppa’s showroom showcases her amazing works of biophilic, or botanic, art. Clients for her living murals include hotels, restaurants and event planners. Preeminent cultural beacons include the Rubell Family Collection, hosting 600-capacity events, and Margulies Collection at the Warehouse.
In the nearby Design District, the tour-capable Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami is another influential draw. North Miami’s Museum of Contemporary Art hosts fundraisers, film showcases and special events.
Just south of downtown, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens is a circa-1916 Gilded-Age fantasy on Biscayne Bay featuring an art-filled Italianate villa and 10 acres of formal gardens. With grottos and the iconic stone barge among the discoveries, this national historic landmark accommodates indoor and outdoor events for up to 500 guests.
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, Credit: Jeff Heilman
Opened in 1935, Little Havana’s Ball & Chain is another local treasure. Live music, zesty food and cocktails and the giant pineapple-shaped backyard stage make for energetic private events. West of the airport, FIU’s Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum provides “transformative experiences through art” with event hosting for up to 500 guests.
Miami/Fort Lauderdale CVB Contact Information
Greater Fort Lauderdale CVB
954.765.4466
Greater Miami CVB
305.539.3000
Click over to page 2 for the latest hotel and event venue openings in Miami/Fort Lauderdale.
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Miami Hotel and Event Venue Openings and Renovations
In December 2018, officials cut the ribbon on the three-year, $620 million expansion and transformation of the Miami Beach Convention Center.
Highlights include 500,000 square feet of renovated exhibit space; 84 breakout rooms totaling 183,000 square feet; a new 60,000-square-foot grand ballroom; new 20,000-square-foot, glass rooftop ballroom; and enhanced Wi-Fi throughout. This year sees the anticipated completion of an adjacent six-acre public park and green space for outdoor events.
Voters in the November 2018 General Election finally approved the convention center’s long-sought adjacent headquarter hotel. The future 800-room hotel will reportedly feature parking, meeting space, restaurants, a pool deck and three levels of retail.
Voters also endorsed plans to transform a city-owned golf course by Miami International Airport into Miami Freedom Park. The proposed billion-dollar, 73-acre development will include a 25,000-seat stadium, “soccer village” and other venues for Miami’s possible first Major League Soccer team. English soccer legend David Beckham and partners have led the drive for the venue and the team, Inter Miami CF, targeting play in the 2020 season.
The redevelopment reportedly also includes at least 750 hotel rooms and at least 1 million square feet of office, retail and commercial space.
The $2 billion mixed-use Miami Worldcenter project includes a proposed smaller convention center for downtown Miami, offering 500,000 square feet of event and expo space along with 1,700 hotel rooms.
In January 2019, Marriott International, Inc., and Turnberry Associates announced the reintroduced of Turnberry Isle Miami in Aventura as the JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort & Spa. The premier resort is adding a new tower with 325 guest rooms.
Scheduled to open winter 2019, the 16-Story Orchid Tower will double the resort’s occupancy to 685 rooms. Slated for spring 2019, the rebrand’s second phase adds the Tidal Cove waterpark, with 25 luxury cabanas and two distinct dining options among the amenities.
Greater Fort Lauderdale Hotel and Event Venue Openings and Renovations
Announced in 2017, the expansion of the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center will reportedly add 525,000-plus square feet of premier meeting space to the 600,000-square-foot LEED EB Gold-certified facility.
The estimated $900 million investment will include an upscale 800-room headquarters hotel. Construction is projected to begin in early 2020 for completion in Q4 of 2023.
Upon completion in 2019, the $1.5 billion property-wide expansion of Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood will feature an iconic guitar-shaped hotel tower, increasing total room count to more than 1,200. The casino will nearly double in size. Additional amenities include 120,000 square feet of meeting and convention space; newly rebuilt Hard Rock Live entertainment venue, new restaurants, bars and lounges, and 41,000-square-foot spa.
Anticipated to open April 2019, Le Meridien Dania Beach at Fort Lauderdale Airport, formerly Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Airport Hotel, is undergoing a $30 million renovation and will feature 245 guest rooms, 20,000 square feet of meeting space and two redesigned restaurants.
Opened in October 2018, the 307-suite Costa Hollywood Beach Resort features a 25,000-square-foot rooftop pool deck offering Atlantic Ocean and Intracoastal Waterway views.
CIRC Hotel is a new 12-story, 111-room boutique property in the heart of Hollywood offering 3,000 square feet of 11th -floor meeting space.
Marriott International’s newest independent brand, Tribute Portfolio, comes to Fort Lauderdale with the slated early 2019 debut of The Dalmar.
This luxury lifestyle hotel will feature 209 rooms, including 44 suites, and 15,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting and ballroom space.
Floors seven through 12 of the 25-story building will be Element by Westin, an extended-stay experience offering 114 rooms including 28 suites, and an exclusive third-floor check-in experience ideal for groups and business travelers.
Targeting an early 2020 opening in downtown Fort Lauderdale’s Flagler Village in downtown Fort Lauderdale, the new $50 million mid-scale dual-branded Tru by Hilton and Home2 Suites by Hilton will offer 112 Tru guest rooms and 106 Home2 Suites guest rooms, and 4,843 square feet of private event and conference space.
Set to become downtown Fort Lauderdale’s tallest building when completed in 2020, 100 Las Olas is a 46-level luxury residential tower incorporating a 238-room Hyatt Centric hotel with amenities including fine dining and retail.
