Centered on miles of condo towers stretching up and down Biscayne Bay, the Downtown Miami skyline visible today is an incredibly recent creation. For almost forty years the tallest tower in Florida was the Dade County Courthouse, a 28 story granite monument of a building on Flagler Street and NW 1st Avenue.
Tag: Development Pipeline
Arquitectonica’s Iconic Babylon Towers Declared Unsafe, at Risk of Being Replaced by Condos
The Babylon Towers, an iconic pair of postmodernist ziggurats on Brickell Bay Drive designed by Arquitectonica in the late ’70s/ early ’80s could be demolished and replaced by a condo tower with up to 184 units, if its owners, Babylon International, get their way.
Icon Brickell’s ‘Iconic’ Pool is Having Very Iconic Issues
Icon Brickell, the gigantic trio of conjoined condo towers that dominate Brickell Point (the spot where the Miami River meets Biscayne Bay) like Miami’s Rock of Gibraltar, may not be as nearly as rock solid as it looks.
Designed by Arquitectonica, Icon Brickell was once developer The Related Group‘s pride and joy. The megaproject, a symbol of the real estate boom in which it was built as well as the spectacular crash that began before its completion, although only seven years old, has a two-acre amenity deck complete with a 40-person hot tub and infinity pool the size of an airport runway that is making swimmers slip and slam into things before they can reach the pool, which is itself leaking into the parking garage below it; the biggest symptoms of structural issues that residents complain exist throughout the entire structure, reports the Miami Herald.
Apparently the problems are due to a pattern of quickie construction adopted by architects and developers feeling the pressure to produce in the final heady days of the condo boom of the 2008s. Other towers have had similar problems, although Icon Brickell’s sheer magnitude likely makes its situatiohn one of the worst. So, Icon’s condo association has begun a complete amenity deck rehab that could take a year or more while suing general contractor Moriarty & Associates for faulty construction, and probably mentally preparing themselves to face whatever problems are unearthed next.
Chad Oppenheim Designing Retail Building With Drippy Facade in the Design District
Miami architect Chad Oppenheim, known for his signature white box-shaped condo towers here and there around Miami, although he does design curves, has designed a small retail building for Dacra in the Design District just a few blocks away at 4039 NE 41st Avenue from his office. Called Stardust East, the three story building has a droopy facade that looks almost Antonio Gaudi-like, if Mr. Gaudi was on a minimalist streak. According to The Next Miami, the design has been submitted to the City of Miami’s Urban Design Review Board and will be reviewed next week.
South Beach’s Marlin Hotel Shows Off Renovated Lobby & Guest Rooms
Under new ownership, South Beach’s Marlin Hotel went under the knife last summer for a renovation and expansion of the historic art deco hotel, including redone public spaces and guest rooms, as well as an increase in the guest room count from 14 to 32, a rooftop pool, and, as a press release puts it, a new “fashion retail concept.”
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Bjarke Ingels Watches His New Miami Towers Twist Into Shape
Bjarke Ingels has been called “architecture’s it boy” more than once. He’s young for an architectural superstar, he’s wicked talented, and although he began as a protege of that Patrician of architecture, Rem Koolhaas, Bjarke gleefully seems to turn ‘high architecture’ on its ear. Right now, Ingels is working on a pair of twisty condo towers in Coconut Grove called Grove at Grand Bay, his first Miami project and potentially his first completed project in the Americas. Gridics interviewed him and project developer David Martin when Bjarke was in town to check on the buildings’ progress.
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Check Out This Time-Lapse Video of the Frost Museum of Science’s Construction
The people of the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science put together a time-lapse video of the construction of the museum’s brand new home in Museum Park, which Gridics recently toured, and, well, it’s kind of nifty.
Update: the museum is almost out of money, and the county is working on a plan to save them and finish construction. In the meantime, distract yourself with the video.
Going Inside the Frost Museum of Science’s Construction Site
Miami’s brand new Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science is a technically and programmatically complicated building full of advanced engineering and wildlife in the middle of Museum Park that (because of those reasons and a kerfuffle with the previous contractors) has taken a while to complete. Construction is more than back on track though for the institution which recently closed its previous location at their old VIzcaya-adjacent site in preparation for the big move. The walls, roof, massive ‘living core,’ and spherical planetarium are all in place, and elaborate technical and educational machinery is in the process of being installed. Gridics went on a tour of the museum’s new digs.
Continue reading “Going Inside the Frost Museum of Science’s Construction Site”
Zaha Hadid Value Engineers Collins Park Garage; Mayor Still Thinks It’s Too Much
Although architect Zaha Hadid’s proposed Collins Park Garage behind the Miami Beach Public Library has not been outright canceled yet, things aren’t looking good. Hadid submitted a value engineered design that straightens columns, flattens lines, and basically makes the whole place look like, well, a parking garage instead of one of her typically surreal creations.
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Rene Gonzalez’s Little GLASS Condo Tower is Done
GLASS, the boutique and very luxurious condo tower South-of-Fifth that architect Rene Gonzalez designed for Terra Group, has just been completeted, and yes it’s pretty darn glassy. A protege of the late, great Mark Hampton—an icon of Floridian modernism even though he only did a few extant things in Miami—Gonzalez’s style has fully evolved into its own.
To oversimplify the difference, Gonzalez’s style is like Mark’s but shinier. And where Mark’s modernism was so strictly restrained, Gonzalez’s is more exhuberant and dramatic. “I think my work is based on rigor, as is his, but also relies on intuition.” says Gonzalez.
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
Photo by Michael Stavaridis/ courtesy Rene Gonzalez Architect
