Wynwood Design Review Committee - Regular Meeting

Wynwood Design Review Committee - Regular Meeting — April 21, 2026 - 10:07 AM

we'll tee up with the roll call allen kent present kathy leff zion. Mass absent. Miguel. Omar present. Heidi. Weigand and jared brunvand present and tom dunlap present. Thank you all very much. If we could, uh, do the pledge of allegiance and then we'll have the lobbyist note and get underway. Pledge allegiance to the flag. The united states of america to the republic for which it stands. One nation under GOD. Indivisible. >> with liberty and. >> justice for all. Super. Thank you. Uh, so I guess I should call us to order. Yes. Any person who is lobbying pursuant to chapter two article six of the city code must register with the city clerk and comply with related city requirements for lobbyists before appearing before the wynwood design review committee. The person MAY not lobby a city official, board member or staff member until registering a copy of the city code section about lobbyists is available in the city clerk's office or online@ww.Com. Any person MAY be heard by the wynwood design review committee through the chair for not more than two minutes on any. Proposition before the committee unless modified by the chair. Members of the public wishing to address the body MAY also do so by visiting. Miami.Com backslash. Virtual boards to submit their written comments via the online comment form. The comments submitted through the common form if any, have been distributed to the committee members and the city staff so that the committee members can consider their comments prior to taking any action and will be included as part of the public record for this meeting. The online comment form will remain open during the meeting to accept comments and distribute to the committee members up until the. Chairperson closes public comment. Additionally, the city will accommodate any speakers desiring to appear in person when addressing the committee, the member of the public must first state his or her name, his or her address and what item will be spoken about. A video of this meeting MAY be requested at the office of communications or viewed online@ww.Com. Please silence all cell phones and other noise making devices. Any person with a disability requiring a. Necessary assistance. Auxiliary aids and services for this meeting MAY notify the city liaison. Please note board members MAY have generally been briefed by city staff on the items on the agenda today in order to ensure that the public has the ability to view the meeting, the city's communications department will broadcast the meeting. The meeting can be viewed live on miami tv. Miami.Com backslash tv or comcast channel 77 within the city of miami. >> the broadcast will also have closed captioning. Thank you. Thank you. Um minutes approval before we do just one quick edit is it possible to remove item one on the cover page? It was the minutes approval from november 4th. Did we not do. >> that or is that just a lingering. I, I think you have an. >> outdated print. >> because the one that I have on my screen says MARCH 10th very. >> good. >> that's I have item one and item two. Um yeah, let's go ahead and do the approval of item two and if we would check if you look at item one I think it's. >> just a hangover. >> from an old. Uh format that we use. Oh, I see the minutes approval in. >> here. >> for this number. >> two instead of number one. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, I've been there and done that. Okay in minutes approval then can I have a motion for the approval of the MARCH 10th, 2026. Minutes? Wonderful. Thank you. >> can we have a second please? Second. >> thank you. All in favor. I superb great guys thank you for that. Let me just catch my notes please. Very good. Public comments are there any public comments this morning? No there are no public comments. Chair and if you like. >> I could request to. Close. >> public comments. Agree. Thank you. Comments closed. Skating right along. Were there any requests for absence waivers? Yes sir. Um member. Zion. >> mass requests. Very good. We still have a quorum in his absence. Yes. >> and can we get a motion for yes. I'm so sorry. Motion for approval of zion member zion masses. Absence waiver. Got a first second and a second. Thank you very much. Uh, all in favor? Aye. Thank you all. Alrighty. Uh, with the housekeeping. Done will come back over to the two uh, first of two drc resolutions that we have in uh on the. >> agenda today and item number one, ricky and andrea drc item number one minute track. 19178 property address. 2431 northwest second avenue project name. Starbucks location. Nrd1 wynwood n r d transit zone. T50 application. Type signage w drc requirement all non painted building. Identification and business. Identification signs with. Nnrd14tt5t6 and d one transit zones shall adhere to the miami zoning code article ten table 15 signed sanders. And wynwood signage guidelines. Thank. >> you. Thank you. Welcome back. Yes gina penny atlas signed representing starbucks. The address is. 1077 west blue heron boulevard west palm beach, florida. I'm here. Requesting approval for the blade sign. Um, it's a pedestrian orientated signage consistent with the wynwood design standards. This is the site location that we're asking for it. Which is the. 2451 um northwest second avenue. Um just a general elevation page of the building. Um the proposed blade sign is going to be a double faced sign 30 by 30 which equates to 6.25ft2. It's amounted. Over nine feet above grade soft internal. Illumination and then pedestrian orientated. Um the site conditions wall art is existing and was a condition of. Approval given for the actual. Starbucks flat wall flat wall sign um it's the existing signage is. 17.18ft2 of sign area. The design details it's a slim three inch. Cabinet um matte black aluminum. Structure. >> white acrylic faces with emerald. Graphics intentionally. Modest and. >> restrained below typical visual threshold and district design is. Architecturally integrated. And subordinated. To the building. >> facade subordinate. The illumination approach soft internal illumination no exposed leds, no glare or digital elements. Lighting is consistent with ambient. Storefront illumination. Typical in wynwood. Um the code. Consistency pedestrian. Oriented project projecting sign minimal sign area at. 6.25ft2 integrated with building. Architecture no excessive. Illumination or digital display consistent with the intent of the wood wynwood overlay which. Prioritizes pedestrian scale and visual integrated signs. This is um projected blade signs are a common and accepted condition throughout the district. This includes illuminated blade signage like the one that we're requesting. This is examples. >> of other locations that have a. >> similar sign. Um why we believe approval is warranted is it supports pedestrian first design intent. It reflects established wynwood signage patterns maintains appropriate scale and placement, enhances visibility without visual impacts. The request aligns with both the letter of intent and with I'm sorry with the letter and the intent of the wynwood overlay. [Laughter] And that concludes my presentation. I'm here for questions. Nicely done. Thank you. Any comments or any questions team? Uh if not can I have a motion uh regarding. The uh starbucks blade sign. Motion to approve the starbucks blade sign. Thank you. Got a motion? Do we have a second? Uh, okay. How was that you, heidi? Thank you. Um, all in favor I. >> that's unanimous. Nicely done. Nice package. Appreciate it. Thank you. >> all right. Have a good day. You as well. All righty. Wd rc item number. Two minute. >> track id. 19180 property address 46 northwest. 27th street. Project name cyan gallery. Location 46 northwest. 27th street transit zone. T5l. Application type signage. Thank . >> you. Good morning. My name is teresa pino. And the address of the location is 46 northwest 27. I'm sorry I'm showing. >> my age. Could you pull. >> that down? Yeah. Can you hear me better now? I sure can now. Thanks. The address is. 46 northwest. 27th avenue and the job is called cyan gallery. I'm here on behalf of my client. Um ,it's a reverse channel letter. I don't I only have. >> this I mean, I. Can give you copies of it. Okay. Look at this and we. >> will pass it along. I have other ones if you need. There you go guys. Oh, you got extras. Oh splendid. Thank you, thank you. Thank you. It's a reverse channel letter um and it has a warm white leds. It's going to be painted gold. I did bring a sample of actual color of the paint that's going to be that's how it's going to be painted the color of it. Um because the actual fascia of that building is black. The client wanted something nice on the building. Um, it does all fall in the category of your of what's required by the city. Is very simple. I mean it's going to halo on the back with a warm white. We did actually do a couple of blocks like to two doors down we did actually another sign there called house of main that it was exactly the same thing. It's just that that. >> fascia was white and we. >> did black um. >> reverse channel letters there. Okay. Uh if no other comments I'd open it to any questions or thoughts. >> from. >> the board. No comments anyone? Fantastic. Then how about a motion. For approval? Thank you. Is there a second second thank you miguel uh all in favor of approval of. Item one 9180. Cyan gallery. I. I. Well done. >> thank you. Okay, fabulous. And with that. Not that those two. >> items weren't fun but. Um, now. >> the real fun now. >> it's time for the real fun. Yes. So work. Discussion item for today we have jenslar that has uh that is here they have a presentation for us to guide us through this workshop. We also have a few members of the previous board so we have victor. Sanchez. >> amanda hertzler charmaine with henseler with gensler and we're hoping to get andres arcilla as well, but he's probably running a little bit late from. >> the wynwood bit. We. >> have william. Kelly and david lerner. Yeah. >> [Laughter] Would you guys mind coming closer? Could. >> you please sit a little bit closer? Can you guys hear me? The microphone's working great. Yes. Please don't be shy. The drc members certainly were not shy before. Uh, pleasure meeting all of you. Uh, I served on the previous drc, so thank you for what you're doing. I know it takes time but it's a it's a great service. Um, so this is meant to be an interactive workshop. It's not meant to be us presenting to you anything. Um, as you know, the city has been talking about. Creating a urban. Design or a design vision plan for wynwood. This has been in the talks for at least a year or two years. So the funds have been finally released. Uh of course we're thankful to the bid. David is here representing the bid as well. Um and so we have started the. Process so we have had some preliminary meetings so far, uh, with the city just to give us some guidelines in terms of what they're looking for. And now we've started the. Process of really speaking to. Stakeholders and other. Individuals. >> uh, to see how we can benefit from your experience and everybody else's knowledge and then we can. Incorporate all of that into the final package. So very quickly, uh, the team here from gensler, uh, not all of us are here. You can see the people that are actually working on it. So don, who is our principal and managing director of the project is also here but not uh able to come today. Obviously I'm here. Uh. Elaine is a strategy and engagement leader. She was not able to make it. She's traveling today. Same with evan marie hoffman is also strategy leader in our office in miami. And as you know, our offices are also located in wynwood. Uh, and of course sarah thompson who is our graphic designer and who's going to be adding the sizzle to that vision design plan. The idea is that it's not just going to be a boring set of guidelines. We want it to represent wynwood. So the intention is that it's actually supposed to be graphically compelling as well. So just very quickly the. Objective it's basically to. Define a shared neighborhood vision that reflects wynwood's history, character and evolution. And then the idea is to create a clear and visually. Compelling design intent booklet to both entice and provide guidance for future development. So as drc. Members and. Ex-members. >> everyone is aware that uh it is not the. Most specific. thing to be sitting on the board or to try to give guidance on the design of the projects that come through. So the idea is how can we make it a little bit. Easier both for the. Developers and the architects who are designing it, but also for the drc and future drc to have a document that could at least begin to guide the discussions. So that's really the idea and the intention. So. >> let me turn it over to murielle. So thank you everybody for being here today. We're really excited to hear your ideas and um dig into how we can help make the. Process better smoother to ensure a great future for wynwood as it starts to rapidly evolve and grow. Um, so the the format of this session today is really meant to be a discussion we want to hear a lot from everyone. Uh, we're already kind of well into our introduction, you know, giving a little context. We'll do a quick round robin and then we have a few topics we'll get to. So first the keep toss create which is really to talk about the the process for. Applications and approvals and all of that. Um, what's working well, what's not working? What are some. Processes or tools or systems we would want to maybe create to make it a better process? Uh, and then we'll talk about. Prioritizing impact, which is after all of our discussion about keep toss and create what are some, uh, what are some topics that we really want to make sure our critical that are addressed in this document that we're creating that would, you know, really help make this a a better a better path for development in wynwood. And. >> finally we'll close. >> with. >> some ideas about the future. And some of the themes that we're thinking about as we're developing the guidelines, doing our kind of background research and context and. Exploring uh, what is and wynwood today but is the neighborhood's character and history and identity. So really preserving the ethos of where wynwood came from as we kind of look forward and evolve. Um, this kind of helpful today we talked about signage on the agenda today, but signage wayfinding event activation. So kind of the applied graphics like how are people getting around and. Navigating if there's an event pop up, how does that layer of information kind of. Integrate um, into the city, the public realm streetscape and connectivity? So the kind of pedestrian comfort walking around. Navigating um, trees and greenery, how that the paseos are connecting each other. It's kind of thinking about how the person is. Experiencing navigating. Wynwood um, art application materials and facade design. So this is really about the the kind of. Tactile and visual. Experience of wynwood as you're going around it kind of really gives the sense of place and then the building shape and ground floor strategy there are. Opportunities especially. With you know, the narrow sidewalks that are existing today. How can we start to carve out the ground floor shape to create a . >> better. Experience as you're going around the neighborhood? And with that we'd love for everybody to share a quick thought like a round robin. Um, what do you like about. Wynwood and how would you describe the visual identity? Please. Kick us off. Not not to put anyone on the spot. I think I guess my first foray into win was probably around 2008. Um the first time I got involved as an owner was probably 2012. Obviously a lot has changed. I feel like it's a and I guess I wear a owner developer hat. I'm not an architect. Um. I feel it's very difficult to keep wynwood's character of what it was then when everyone is trying to build a project that financially works and maxes out the square footage or units that you can build because of the land prices and so I think that we have lost our grit. We have lost our art in a sense. Uh, I feel like a lot of the art is forced. I think there's potentially better ways of accomplishing that. I think there's been some pretty bad examples of facade treatments. Um I'll stop there and let. Others uh. Add maybe I'll. >> have more later. Thank you jared. Yeah. So um so my name is miguel. So I grew up in miami. So I mean my first my. First memory of wynwood was that roberto clemente park back in 1997. So it was wynwood was very different place back then. You know I'm an architect but i think what I love about wynwood um you know, I'm sort of in a in a crossroad here because as as my colleague was saying, what I love about wynwood is the density is the that it's a walkable area, right? That it's full of art. There's few places that are like that. But I feel in the sense of to me is how do we move forward and what strategies do we use to keep wynwood? I mean it's never going to be what it used to be, right? Because places progressed, there's. Development. >> there's people coming in. But to me how do we keep it so the the people that are that are the locals from wynwood are could afford to be in wynwood. You know it's you know I used to work in wynwood and I used to have coffee at this place I'm not going to mention but a cup of coffee was $20. Right. Uh so it's how do you how do you keep wynwood so that it's still. Architecturally a. Pedestrian friendly. Place, but how do you keep it to that scale? And I think that's the challenge and that's that's like a a challenge that we have to work with, you know, keeping keeping it that scale at the same time we know it's going to grow. We know but how do we keep it so it could have the soul of what what it used to be right and what what what it could be because I think it's an. Amazing uh. Place. Right. >> again, not that many places are like it. Thank you. The things that I've enjoyed are that I like about wynwood. I guess over the past 20 years or so is something that's expressed earlier, which is the walkability of the neighborhood. It feels like you can just go from one end to the I mean you can go from one end to the other end just on foot. You don't have to drive. It's unlike. >> many of the. >> neighborhoods here in miami. Um, you know the reason a walk around wynwood would either be to go to your favorite little hole in the wall place or really from myself, you know, over the past 20 something years would be to discover new art. And so when you walk up and down the. Streets there's a lot of discovery the artist the art was constantly changing and. Evolving at the whim of whatever visiting artist, you know, showed up in wynwood and uh, I think that that's. Diminished. >> uh, in the past five years as new developments have gone up, those developments have not created. Spaces for that. Whimsical. >> um, you know. Improvised art. Moment that. Wynwood was so. >> known for. Thank you. You're welcome. So I'm a I'm a newcomer. Uh, in the scheme of things I've been uh, involved in wynnewood for 5 or 6 years and have been based here from an office point of view for about three. And so um, you know, the old I'm showing my age again, whatever song that was you don't know what you got til it's gone. I can't appreciate what was here 20 years ago but I can appreciate what what was here 5 or 6 years ago and what I like about it is and it's probably there's not as much of it as there was 20 years ago, but I still feel like it's a place that you know, if somebody says to you where where are you going tonight? It's like we're going to wynwood. And so uh and I'm a hybrid. I'm a. Developer and a landscape architect. So I kind of do look through two different. Lenses from time to time and and I spent 15 years at. Disney and I tell people often that disney we would spend, you know, millions or. Billions trying to create. Places that have a place like wynwood has. So we're blessed with this head start. It MAY not be as much of it as we had, but if we do things smartly, wisely and timely um we can keep enough of what's there that there still exists. So the short answer is I like it because it's. >> a. >> place I won't repeat. >> the reasons that it's a place but it exists. Okay, so my knowledge of wynwood goes back to the. 70s in the mid 70s when I used to work there. As working for the city of miami when it was a garment industry. And so just over the years just the whole transformation has been pretty. Radical but really interesting because it really did even though it became what was called the art district, you know, the murals and all that. I mean it actually did have a sense of murals and graphics. So I think the identity for me had I suppose the visual identity it's always been graphic even though it's changed over time and changed to reflect the contents of what's there. I mean it was a factory town and now it is sort of factory it's it's the production of real. Estate and I think that in some senses it's good but it's also you know, how do you move forward and not only because the cities evolve they do that organically. So how do you how do you through workshops such as this begin to think about how do you retain a sense and how do you not erase completely erase the history and the culture of what was there? But then how do you move forward? Because everything should reflect our times. And then what I do think is really critical is about the maintenance of a sense of place. I mean it does have a neighborhood feel. I think the opportunity is somebody who works in bakehouse art complex nearby. Um the opportunity not only to a sense of place but to connect to the. Adjacencies like how not to just think of wynwood as a. Siloed. >> you know, hipster community but a place that really connects to other. Places and that also helps other places think of their. >> neighborhoods as. >> place or potential for place making. Thank you. >> so like you, I'm born and raised here in miami so I am very familiar with wynwood and growing up and seeing its evolution is super interesting. I think everybody knows wynwood and appreciates it for its unique style. Um the the food the art it's what really makes it interesting. Um to cathy's point, I agree I think one of the things in living in this space is trying to see how wynwood could be better. Identified more than just a two or 3 or 4 block area, but. Incorporating the. Entirety of its. Area and how we're able to do that both to the north as it integrates with. Midtown but also to the west. And you know, to the south where we still have some, you know, quasi impoverished areas. How do you really continue that sense of. Community that it has without it like having a dead stop at 20th street. And you know, people are then anxious about walking but wynwood as I know it is you know, really that couple of blocks that's super interesting a lot of fun. You know I think that is what we all know wynwood and what I'm hoping to see. >> is how we. Integrate to those adjacent areas. Thank you. And what's interesting is that the common thread that's kind of connecting a lot of what what we've heard so far obviously is the art. Component obviously an incredibly important portion of it. But but the idea of. Wynwood as a. District distinct. Uh, place in a space which is an interesting way of thinking about the. Neighborhood but it still doesn't define very much. Right. And so so this is the for me, the unique and interesting thing about this endeavor of what we're trying to do is yes, it is a district. It is a place what makes it a place? How can we continue keeping it a place obviously when you. Upzone and there's nothing we can do about zoning. If I can build 8 to 12 stories it's going to change the character of what used to be a one story warehouse like we know that. However what are the th