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The Miami arts community is fortunate to have the architect and urban planner Germane Barnes whose vision and understanding is driving creative, impactful change in the Miami landscape. The Chicago born Barnes is currently the recipient of three prestigious architectural prizes; The 2021/2022 Rome Prize for Architecture, The Wheelwright Prize from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and The Architectural League of New York Prize. His three-peat of accolades hints he is well on his way to accomplishing more at 35 years old than most veteran architects. His work was recently on display at MoMA, part of the museum’s first ever all Black architectural exhibition. A Spectrum of Blackness: The Search for Sedimentation in Miami (2020) was an exploration of the dichotomy between architecture and Black spaces. Through college and everyday household staples, like spice racks, he comments on Black domestic life against displacement. The ongoing threat of rising sea levels in Miami, and how it has impacted Black communities in the past and present. Barnes is the former Designer in Residence for the Opa-Locka Community Development Cooperation (OLCDC) where he spearheaded a multisite urban revitalization project. Since the Wheelwright Prize was reintroduced in the last 15 years, Barnes is the first Black architect to receive the award. TESTING GROUNDS For Barnes, the old inspires the new. Echoes of Brancusiesque designs remixed through clean lines, broad color strokes, with attention to Black domestic and city life. Who better than a young architect in a young city to weigh in on the current architectural state. Attempting to unwrap the enigma and allure of Miami’s constant architectural expansion, and provide his vision for today’s architectural rebranding. “Miami is at a critical juncture. A lot of its more foundational neighborhoods, with foundational architectural character, are historically designated. So those neighborhoods are entrenched. They won’t be changed. However the rest of Miami is extremely young. And with anything that’s young you always want to be up to date with whatever is the new movement, or whatever is contemporary at the time. You see an influx of out of town architects coming to try and put their stamp in Miami. Cities like Chicago, San Francisco, and New York are already densified. Miami becomes that uncharted territory of ‘can I stake my claim and create a signifier in an American city?’ That can be both a positive or a negative. But it makes Miami a testing ground. Native Miamians don’t like that. Visitors and transplants don’t mind it.” The attractive nature of Miami’s reinvention, potential, and constant change begs the question: is this ultimately a positive or negative for the city? Depends on who you ask, and how far this phenomena could spill into Miami’s surrounding neighborhoods. The Design District and Brickell City Centre, for example, attract and lure new visitors to the city. Whether it’s shopping, selfies, or dining, these architecturally driven attractions become Diderot effects. “All major cities want to have some resemblance of tourism. And a place like Miami depends on tourism. If your total economy is dependent on one means of income then you need to constantly reinvent yourself to continue to get new people to come. The Design District is just a new machination to attract visitors to want to spend their money.” Miami, being the city it is, will have a new iteration of the Design District and a new iteration of whatever what was once “new.” Just like Didion’s “new skyline” is outdated today. Are there, if any, dangers towards Miami’s ambition of architectural acceleration? “As long as it stays central to one location I don’t really care,” says Barnes.”As long as it isn’t interrupting the more culturally rich neighborhoods then what’s the big deal? If everything is in the Design District then what’s the ‘Design District.’ It’s completely manufactured. If these new buildings find themselves there, what are they interrupting? Versus, if they tried to plant that in Little Haiti, then we have a problem.” ARCHITECTURE FOR CHANGE In 2009 Barnes took an internship in Capetown, South Africa to work in underprivileged townships. It was during this period he learned that architecture can be an impactful positive agent, and the magnitude of this responsibility is in the hands of the architect. “That wasn’t something I learned in my undergraduate education. Capetown altered my entire trajectory and practice.” In addition to his architectural projects, Barnes is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Miami School of Architecture. Architecture as an agent for change is the vital lesson Barnes impresses upon his students. “You have a level of culpability, responsibility, and agency. You better acknowledge that. However you choose to use your power is your choice, but you definitely have power. But you can’t claim willful ignorance.”