Design Center of the Americas (DCOTA) — Attraction in Dania Beach

I had a bad experience with who calls himself the manager of Dcota, Jorge Berrios I had interest in a lamp they had on sale but had not seen it from close ( they had it in the back of a showroom . I could not go see it another week because of the hours . I explained that I did not know if it would work I had to see it again if he could hold it . He said post a payment and I’ll hold it . When I went to see it I realize it looked old and used and not work the over $450 he charged me . He said then that he was not refunding even if I had not pick it up . He said no refunds. I remedes him that I had wanted to see it before purchasing it . I asked to speak to his manager . He said I am the manager and did not have a number to give me for his manager . He said to call the same number I called to reach him. Attached are the pictures of the condition of this lamp. I ended up picking this up because feared he would even sale it in top of not refunding it because of his various text to pick up. I did not trust what he would do. I have never had an experience like this . I don’t have much funds and it’s the most expensive decoration I have had and it’s worse than thrift store condition . The cord is all broken lamp shade is all bent in numerous places . Unfixable and with multiple scratches . . Surely he profited . Shameful on his...

For an outfit advertised as a design center, it reads moreso as a confusing office park with an identity crisis. The entrance is via a complex vehicular intersection; the approach features a parking toll booth and parking signs that make you worry you're going to get a ticket or your car towed. The entrance is similarly confusing and doesn't insist upon itself. The complex doesn't even have a parking garage, instead relying on an inordinate amount of vehicular surface parking, and that corrupts would could have been a more holistic, dynamic, and beautiful site plan that would have made walking pleasant. The structure looks mostly like a standard Floridian office building, and while nicer on the inside, it feels like a mall! It's a building with a mash of non-cohesive land uses and architectural forms that make navigating or inhabiting it perplexing, even as it has beautiful architectural and interior design moments. An art & design center should be connected, integrated, and embracing its community; instead, the DCOTA is hard to get to, disincentivizes multi-modal transit for its local community to and on-site, and presents siloed, exclusive venues that...

As a child, I remember my mom bringing us here every weekend because I loved everything about DCOTA. She stopped as we became teens because well, i had other interests but now I'm 37 yrs old and now changing my career from nursing to Interior Design because she knew me better than I knew myself. She always told me that I should be an Architect or ID, my high school counselor, he even forced me to take Drafting TWICE after I failed it because, he knew me better than I knew myself. I hope DCOTA is around for 100 years so that I, as a soon to be Interior Designer and Consultant can partake in all the architectural glitz and Interior Design...