Project:
Miami-Dade County Health Department
Miami, Florida

Budget: $69,700

Deadline: 5 pm, Friday, April 9, 2010

As the local branch of the Florida Department of Health, the Miami-Dade County Health Department (www.dadehealth.org) is charged with promoting and protecting the health and safety of all residents and visitors to Dade County. It has served the Greater Miami-Dade County community since the 1940's under various organizational structures.

Representing the largest population of the 67 county health departments in Florida, it is the second largest health department (following Palm Beach) in terms of budget and number of employees. The Miami-Dade CHD has an operating budget of $41.5 million to deliver public health services to over 2 million residents of Miami-Dade County, 15% of the state's population. Approximately 46% of the budget is state money appropriated by the legislature, 32% is derived from Federal grants, and 22% from local fees generated for services.

The responsibilities of the Miami-Dade County Health Department are to prevent epidemics and the spread of disease, protect against environmental hazards, prevent injuries, promote and encourage healthy behaviors, respond to disasters and assist communities in recovery efforts, and assure the quality and accessibility of health services. It is responsible for maintaining public health and safety in many areas including drinking water, sewage treatment, biomedical waste, public bathing places, and other areas of concern.

The Department also responds to reports of communicable diseases, participates in disaster planning, and facilitates the staffing of shelters for people with special health care needs in the event of hurricanes or other disasters. The Department has the responsibility of maintaining vital records recording all births and deaths in the county and educating the public regarding healthy behaviors such as tobacco use, injury prevention, etc.

The Department maintains a staff of 864 employees. Employee categories include: administrative/clerical (36%), managerial (5%), other professionals (22%), paraprofessionals (7%), physicians (1%), professional health care (22%) and support services (5%).

Facility Description

This new facility for the Miami-Dade County Health Department is a 4-story modern international style design with ribbon windows along the east, south and west side. A lower curtain wall of windows defines the main entrance at the north side with partial returns on the east and west side. The building is 80 feet wide by 200 feet long and runs longitudinally north & south.

The main entrance of the building is located on the north end. A symbolic stair entrance is located at the northwest corner of the building which is a primary corner in the urban context of the civic center. On the northeast side, is the main pedestrian entrance which is comprised of a monumental ramp that begins to ramp outside of the building and continues ramping inside.  This ramp serves all visitors.

A volume encased by a two story glass curtain wall, the entrance lobby houses the monumental ramp which terminates at the reception desk and the vertical circulation core. The glass is supported by major steel columns and beams in the interior at all levels, which may allow for an opportunity for art within the building lobby space.

Cantilevering into the main lobby is the second floor balcony serving as the entrance lobby of the second floor. A stainless steel horizontal design balcony rail overlooks the main span of the two story high curtain wall and runs east & west the full length of the lobby. This 2nd floor lobby balcony provides another opportunity to view the structural steel supported glass curtain wall where possible artwork may be placed.

The exterior structure of the building consists of poured-in-place concrete with partial infill concrete block above and below the ribbon windows.  It is designed for category five hurricane force winds.  The structure is solid and will require structural engineering calculations for any artwork element that may be proposed for the upper or middle bands on the exterior façade.

Sites for Artwork

The project's Art Selection Committee has selected two potential sites for artwork - 1) the high exterior bands and 2) the glass curtain walls at the north end.

The Committee would like to commission artwork for one of the sites. From the submissions, they will select 1 to 4 finalists from whom to request site-specific proposals. There will be a stipend for each finalist.

Artists are encouraged to submit images of previous work that would illustrate how their artwork would fit one of these sites. Artists may include in their statements how they would address their chosen site and/or very brief descriptions of any preliminary ideas.

1) The upper & middle architectural bands (12'h x 80'w) that wrap the exterior of the building are supported visually by smaller ribbon rows of windows. The bands are highly visible elements of the architectural design and can be seen from the well-traveled, elevated Dolphin Expressway (I-395) to the south.

For this site, the Committee would be interested in an iconic exterior sculpture (a single sculpture or a series of elements) that would energetically and dynamically serve to identify the department and creatively and abstractly sympoblize its mission.

The sculpture(s) could be sited anywhere around the building: along the sides or at the corners, on the upper band or the midde band or both (though the middle band will likely contain the facility's name).

2) The glass curtain wall at the north end of the building is actually two walls, one at the first and second levels and one at the third and fourth levels. The lower window wall is 26' high and 64' long and wraps back around the east and west sides for 20' each. The interior second level balcony is itself 8' deep and, therefore, stands 12' back from the glass wall, providing an excellent view.

At the third and fourth levels, the glass window wall runs most of the north end of the building and only wraps around to the east side for about 20'. The floor of the fourth level splits this wall, so that, from the inside, it is high on the third level and lower on the fourth level.

The Committee is open to artwork that that addresses either the lower glass wall or the upper glass wall. The artwork could be installed inside the mullions of the glass wall or it could hang in front of the wall between the steel columns that rise through the levels on the north end of the structure. The artwork itself could be glass or some other appropriate medium like colored film applied to the existing glass.

Renderings & Plan

Photographs

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