[1] In 1950, Washington approved a government-sponsored Inter-American Center in Miami, and on October 12 of that year, several Latin American republics signed preliminary participation in the project.
The complex consisted of a quasi-circular arrangement of buildings around a one-mile (1.6 km) perimeter long lake and was organized in three areas—Science, Art, Industry—expressing the "culture of the American countries at this time in history."
Arriving from the boulevard, counterclockwise, the visitor would encounter the United States and Latin American pavilions to reach the palm tree-lined "Allée of the Arts" heading to the Grand Plaza, the Hemisphere as theme center, the Spire and the Hanging Gardens.
Passing the small bridge, one reached the science area with the aquarium, and other research and industry pavilions (on the other side of the outside basin were planned a marine amphitheater, a beach, the Water Gate and the Club Island).
At the same time that the layout was being discussed, the architectural concept of the Hemisphere developed as a concrete multi-arched structure that partially covered and screened a multi-functional open-air plaza for meetings, events, and other performances (variants of the 1954–55 Interama scheme can also be seen in J.E.
In his sketches for Interama, Malaussena employed the same Beaux-Arts principles that he used in his most renowned works in Caracas, the Sistema de la Nacionalidad (1945–55) and the Military Academy (1951).
Ferris's impressive aerial color rendering—along with many preparatory drawings— illustrate this third version of the Inter-American Center as an extraordinary riparian city, organized as a densely built and landscaped grid of islands, canals, plazas, streets, and shaded parking areas.
All buildings used screening, ventilation, and lighting devices that corresponded to the contemporary trend of tropical architecture as seen in the projects of Alfred Browning Parker, Rufus Nims, and others.
During the 1960s, while Interama officials and architects were pursuing visions of an ideal inter-American community modeled as a World's Fair of the Americas, Miami itself was increasingly becoming a hemispheric city.
Between 1960 and 1962, Robert Browne's team produced dozens of sketches and drawings that provided glimpses of the various sections of Interama, from the Mediterranean-style entertainment area and the open-air theater at the edge of the bay to the science-fiction-like skyline and views of the Tower of Freedom.
By 1974, only the Trade Center building had been completed, and this, in addition to other political reasons, caused new US President Gerald Ford to cancel all funds for any type of Bicentennial Exposition.
Munisport got permission to raise low-lying areas with clean fill and construction debris but soon was burying the land under municipal refuse instead and then got a permit to turn the site into a sanitary landfill.
[2] Today, part of the site of Interama is now home to Florida International University's Biscayne Campus, as well as Oleta River State Park.