Alongside a booming tourist economy, the City of Miami was transformed by a string of ambitious civic developments planned throughout the 1950s and 60s. As the routing of downtown freeways and construction of a new commercial seaport transformed commerce and travel within the city, planners looked offshore to the southern barrier islands to develop new parks and recreational amenities. In 1962, the southwest shore of Virginia Key was selected for the construction of an aquatic sporting facility, with the intention of making Miami the “speedboat racing capital of the world” (RLA Conservation 3). Chicago based firm Ralph H. Burke Engineers and Architects developed a masterplan for the site, after which the local office of Pancoast, Ferendino, Skeel and Burnham was hired to design a grandstand for the stadium. New to the firm and a recent emigree from Cuba, architect Hilario Candela was placed in charge of the design. Drawing on experience from his work with Max Borges in Cuba and encounters with Felix Candela and Pier Luigi Nervi at Georgia Tech, Candela produced an acrobatic concrete structure which captured the excitement of speedboat racing and fulfilled Burke Engineers and Architects’ direction to create an, “image-making waterfront landmark” (Lejune).

Hurricane Andrew caused significant damage to the structure in 1992, leading to the shuttering and subsequent decay of the facility.

The stadium is currently abandoned.

Between hurricane damage and subsequent deterioration, the structure is in need of comprehensive rehabilitation, but retains an underlying integrity conducive to restoration and reuse efforts. A 2015-14 study backed by the Getty Foundation provided comprehensive insight into the conditions of the structure, and set the groundwork for possible routes of action regarding spalling, graffiti, and other issues affecting the envelope and structure.

Miami Marine Stadium consists of a 6,000’ x 1,200’ dredged basin and a 326’ x 126’ exposed concrete grandstand. The basin is framed by a one mile earthwork pier to the northeast and Rickenbacker Causeway across to the southwest, connected on their southeast ends by an elliptical cove and opening onto Biscayne Bay at the northwest. The grandstand is centrally positioned along the Rickenbacker shoreline, with the forward third of its width raised on pilings over the water. The poured bleacher slab, seating 6,500, is segmented by eight staircases along its length and two walkway landings at its center and lowermost elevations. The center landing is accessed from the grandstand’s rear via two curving switchback ramps; beyond which at ground level, platforms over the water connect with portals emptying onto the lower landing. 

Eight inverted tripods support the grandstand, carrying a center and rear beam beneath the seating slab and piercing through the bleachers to lift the thin shell canopy above. The rear v-shaped struts are angled away from the water, joined at a swelling base by center struts angled opposite. The canopy sequences eight hyperbolic paraboloids to form a folded plate structure, bound together by a post-tensioned diaphragm and cantilevered 65’ over the seating area.

The structure was poured using plywood formwork fashioned on site and “three or four grades of concrete” of varying lightness between the different structural members (Lejeune).

Miami Marine Stadium’s seating faces out to the skyline of Miami Beach, beyond the wooded northeast end of Virginia Key. The downtown Miami skyline is also visible to its northwest. A large parking lot to the rear of the grandstand separates it from Rickenbacker Causeway, which connects to the Brickell financial district on the mainland and crosses over to Key Biscayne further west. Neighboring the stadium on Virginia Key are the Miami Seaquarium, NOAA research facilities, and Virginia Key Beach Park.

The decision to build using reinforced concrete derived firstmost from the harsh conditions of salt water weathering along the coast, against which an exposed steel frame would have proven less tolerant in the long term (French 88). The bare nature of the grandstand, moreover, allowed Hilario Candela to pursue the dynamic mode of concrete design which most interested him, unhindered by the bloat of insulation or cladding. Formidable contributions to concrete structure had already arisen from grandstand designs of the past, notably Eduardo Torroja’s 1939 Zarzuela Hippodrome in Madrid and Carlos Raúl Villanueva’s 1949 University Stadium in Caracas. Torroja’s thin shell vaulted canopy and Villanueva’s total fusion of structure mark key precedents to the defining features of Miami Marine Stadium, but Candela’s design pushed these concepts further. Employing recent developments in thin shell geometry pioneered by Felix Candela, and the twisting faceted members of Pier Luigi Nervi, he achieved new dimensions of load transformation more plastic and dynamic than his antecedents. 

Surviving through decades of hurricanes and South Atlantic weather, the stadium is a remarkable testament to the durability and continuing relevance of reinforced concrete construction. In its state of disuse it has served as a testing ground for Getty Institute backed research into the aesthetics and functionality of patchwork spalling repair and graffiti removal.

As cities across the US directed enormous resources towards civic projects as part of widespread renewal efforts, the City of Miami pursued an altogether new typology when investing in the Marine Stadium; a resource which uniquely celebrates the relationship of the city and the sea, the cornerstone of their touristic identity and a reflection of genuine local passion and pride. Despite initial financial difficulties while the stadium operated under programming which prioritized powerboat racing, the addition of a professional floating stage made the facility a beloved local venue for pop concerts, theater performances, and all varieties of public spectacle. 

The task of defining new expressions for community and civic activity in the age of the car, radio, and television resonated with Russel Pancoast, who served on the Biscayne Federal Architectural Advisory Board in the early 1960s, with hopes to positively impact planning and community building in the region (The Florida Architect, Sept. 1964). In a 1962 op-ed, he commented that, “through this century there have been spasms of realization in this country that something must be done to make our cities human,” but expressed dismay that the current generation of Miami leadership was concerned about growth, “and so little about the quality of that growth” (Pancoast 6, 21). His firm’s contribution to Miami Marine Stadium was a gesture firmly aligned with his vision of responsible community investment, engaging the identity and people of the city while providing a new civic amenity of heroic scale and proud innovation.

The more exuberant strains of Miami’s commercial architecture became a popular target for establishment modern critics in the 1950s and 60s. Epitomized by the work of Morris Lapidus, the hotel and resort architecture of Miami Beach employed expressive Googie devices at an institutional scale. Angular or curvilinear, the impetus behind the dramatic plastic treatment of concrete in such buildings was largely decorative, but proved itself worthy of delight among popular audiences.

Born of a different approach, Miami Marine Stadium managed to bridge the gap between popular and critical elation. Derived from performance engineering, it makes for no less a spectacle than the novelties of Miami Beach, but draws critical authority from the revered tradition of rigorous and calculated technical innovation to which it belongs.

As of 2024, conservation efforts are still grappling with the contemporary aesthetic question of whether to preserve or remove graffiti as part of the stadium’s rehabilitation and new identity. This uncertainty has been more than an amicable affair across major parties, with Candela himself expressing appreciation for the graffiti and a willingness to preserve it, while local street art authorities Luis Berros and Craig O'Neil have conveyed reciprocal appreciation for the building itself and a willingness to sacrifice the art if it ultimately means saving the building (RLA Conservation 26).

The history and identity of modern Miami is inseparable from the substantial presence and contributions of its Cuban population. Approximately 1.4 Million Cubans came to the United States as refugees following the 1959 Revolution. Candela’s rapid professional success, exhibited nowhere more clearly than in his design leadership at Miami Marine Stadium, is a monument to the responsibility and ambition which the growing Miami Cuban community brought to their new home.

Advocacy and conservation efforts on the part of Friends of Miami Marine Stadium have been a historic undertaking in a city notoriously inclined to demolition. Garnering support and recognition from the Dade Heritage Trust, National Register of Historic Places, Docomomo US, World Monuments Fund, and the Getty Foundation, they have raised millions of dollars in funding, worked towards outlining numerous rehabilitation plans, and won over numerous civic leaders to their cause.

Miami Marine Stadium represents a unique typology in the world of sports architecture, exalting the mechanistic and individualistic iconography of the speed boat, factors not unfamiliar to the discourse and driving spirit of American modernism. Rivaled by few American buildings in its compelling and complex dynamism, it exemplifies the radical direction of the global concrete vanguard at the time of its design. For the people of Miami, it is above all a neglected resource of great potential, with hopes for its future gaining an ever stronger foothold through the intense dedication of Friends of Miami Marine Stadium.

“Biscayne Federal Architectural Advisory Board Honored.” The Florida Architect, Sept. 1964, pp. 19-20. 

French, Christine  Madrid, and Morris Hylton . University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, 2018, p. 86, Florida’s Mid-Century Modern Architecture. 

Lejeune, Jean-Francois. “Docomomo US Newsletter.” 15 July 2014. 

Pancoast, Russel. “The Architect's Place In Planning.” The Florida Architect, Dec. 1962, pp. 4,6,19-22. 

RLA Conservation, Inc. “Miami Marine Stadium Concrete Solutions Report.” FINAL REPORT MMS-CONSOL: Concrete Solutions A Standard-Setting Project for Graffiti Management, Surface Cleaning and Patch Repair of Historic  Concrete, Utilizing the Miami Marine Stadium as a Test Site., Getty Foundation, 29 Feb. 2016, www.getty.edu/foundation/pdfs/kim/miami_marine_stadium_final_report.pdf.