In 1966, the Authority contracted with six world renowned architects, Louis Kahn, Paul Rudolph, Marcel Breuer, Harry Weese, José Luis Sert, and Edward Durrell Stone, to design the International Area of Interama. Central to this ensemble of modern public buildings were canopied outdoor spaces, hanging gardens, pyramidal structures, plazas, patios, and elevated terraces that combined to create a contemporary version of a Pre-Columbian and tropical center. Though the architects were commissioned to design individual structures, they emphasized a spirit of collaboration and clearly envisioned their projects in relation to each other. Sert, a long-term advocate of the “heart of the city” in modern planning, wrote at the time, “Interama has the same principles and size as the center of a city. There is a distillation of the designs and open spaces so they all fit together.”

Among the components of the six architects design were spaces for exhibitions, presentations, a bazaar and living facilities for international delegates and students. The public areas of the project were monumental in scale and form, and designed to be appreciated from both the water and from within the complex. In contrast, the living areas in almost each regional group showed a preference for more introverted, patio-type housing. The pieces were organized to exploit the urban potential of their grouping, framing vistas from building to building and from plaza to plaza. The addition in the late 1960s of Minoru Yamasaki’s design for the Tower of Freedom would have created an un-precedented icon in Miami, and a focal point for the Interama complex.

While the Authority clearly overlooked an important opportunity in choosing not to include a Latin American architect, the combined work of the six architects, if built, would have been a milestone in the history of world architecture.

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1. Interama: Miami and the Pan-American Dream
2. Pan-Americanism, Miami and Interama: 1951-1959
3. Progress with Freedom: Interama 1960-1967
4. The International Area
5. Interama's final Act: 1967-1975