MIAMI—After a long, bloody battle, South Beach ACE won the rights to redevelop the Miami Beach Convention Center District—and design firm OMA is authoring the new look. Pritzker Prize-winning architect Rem Koolhaas and Shohei Shigematsu, his right hand man and the partner in charge of the convention center project for OMA, is the man behind the plans.

Shigematsu joined OMA in 1998 and became a partner in 2008. He has led the OMA office in New York since 2006 and is responsible for the firm's operations in North America. Under his direction, the New York office has overseen the completion of Milstein Hall at Cornell University as well as the construction of the National Beaux Arts museum in Quebec.

Shigematsu has also led numerous direct collaborations with artists, including a pavilion in Cannes housing a seven screen system designed in collaboration with Kanye West, the Marina Abramovic Institute for the Preservation of Performance Art in upstate New York, and a studio renovation for artist Cai Guo Qiang in New York. GlobeSt.com caught up with Shigematsu to discuss the convention center project.