2020 Plimpton-Poorvu Design Prize, Second Prize: El Mercado Modelo de Miami

Rendering of inside market with people walking

By Tessa Crespo (MDes Risk & Resilience ’20) and Stefan Bird (MIT MSRED ’20) — Recipients of the 2020 Plimpton-Poorvu Design Prize, Second Prize.

El Mercado Modelo de Miami is a non-profit multi-stakeholder cooperative in the Allapattah neighborhood of Miami, Florida. The adaptive reuse development provides a proof of concept that cooperatives can be incubators for economic mobility and channels for displaced business owners to reinvest. The diverse program embraces the rich Dominican Republic culture of eating and artisanship grounded in an existing neighborhood of food and fabrication. The project is housed in a 22,000gsf warehouse that provides a support platform for entrepreneurs to life-cycle through their businesses. The market’s mission is to be a community asset for social and economic mobility in a city that is increasingly vulnerable to the negative externalities of climate change.