Getting to Know West 8, the Architecture Firm Replacing Gehry on the Lincoln Park Project

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By Kyle Munzenrieder in Culture

Mon., Jul. 13 2009 @ 10:19AM

West 8 Urban Design & Landscape Architecture _ projects _ Simcoe Wavedeck.jpg

all image via West 8

The Simcoe Wavedeck in Toronto, Canada

Frank Gehry has officially been replaced on Miami Beach's Lincoln Park project -- the outdoor, 2.5-acre space leading up to the Gehry-designed New World Symphony -- after the famed architect couldn't stick to budget. The selection committee has chosen West 8, a Dutch firm specializing in contemporary landscape architecture. (Update: We just got off the phone with a representative from the New World Symphony. The City of Miami Beach still has to approve the selection before it's finalized.)

What? Who? Let's find out together, but before that, can we talk for a hot second about the name. Lincoln Park? Really. We get it -- the site is close to Lincoln Road, but Chicago already has a famous Lincoln Park, and we all know how we feel about naming local spots after existing ones. Let's not even go into the matter of the similarly named awful rap-rock band.

With that settled, West 8 was founded in Rotterdam in 1987 by Adrian Geuze and Paul van Beek and has since gone on to employ more than 75 architects with a second office in New York City. They proposed turning the World Trade Center site into a pasture, are working on a facelift for NY's Governors Island (which includes free wooden bicycles for all), and recently completed the Simcoe Wavedeck in Toronto. Enough with words -- pictures after the jump.