City Hall of Opa-Locka
Last summer I picked up a poster "Only 6 Months Old Is Opa-Locka -- Sincere, Sustained Development is Making it Miami's Fastest Growing Suburbs" with images of historical places in Opa-Locka at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami. The poster illustrated points of Moorish Revival architectures interest in the city, incorporated in 1926. The work in progress is a collaborative by Anne Daems and Kenneth Andrew Mroczek entitled Opa-Tisha-Wocka-Locka, will tell the histories of Opa-Locka. Perhaps my immediately placement of the poster to my wall comes from my nerd fascination for historical places. Sadly, I didn't think much of it afterwards.
It wasn't until two months ago, when I making a trek to visit a friend in Coral Gables that I past the Opa-Locka Tri-Rail station. I was completely amazed. Never in the history of me riding trains, was I head over heals for how a city's train station was constructed. Everything I could remember from my Islamic Art and Architecture course came to mind: minarets, domes, arches, mosaics, the color (cobalt) blue. I felt like I was no longer in South Florida, heck, for sure not in the states either. To make me even more excited was an article I read about the city's developer, Glenn Curtiss in the Miami Herald...I believe. This whole town was developed by the theme "Arabian Fantasy" based on 1001 Arabian Tales.
In my recent trip to New York City, I made sure to look up as much as I can. There are buildings with many excessive decorative constructions, something you do not see in recent town developments and plazas. It made me wonder what future will hold for architectural design and how will people response to our current structures. I can't help but be completely bored and sad to see new constructions being built. Granted there's so much to planning constructions: monies (make it cheap, make a profit), labor, deals with the city and etc., but I miss looking at beauty.
