In the heart of the Miami Design District—an urban neighborhood dedicated to innovative fashion, design, architecture, and dining—our concept for a 20-story tower combines more than 150,000 square feet of boutique office space with multiple levels of premium retail, restaurant, and amenity spaces.

The area has complex building rules and our goal was to find the most efficient and economical way of maximizing buildable area. Under the controls, when you build into a corner, you have to round the corner, so we utilized curves to maximize the footprint and define the shape of the tower. It was a motif that referenced Miami’s Art Deco heritage, and so we wrapped the structure in a fluid, streamlined skin both internally and externally to create a delicate and slender silhouette.

Each level layers up with sweeping horizontal curves. High ceilings, full-height windows and wrap-around balconies maximize the 360-degree views of the Miami skyline and Biscayne Bay. The office tower sits atop a two-story retail podium, including a pedestrian promenade and landscaped shopping plaza, as well as a rooftop garden to take full advantage of the city’s outdoor lifestyle. Carved out of the center of the podium, a curving atrium draws light down into the plaza interior.

This ”bonsai” luxury office tower has the maximum floor plate permitted by the city in this retail-zoned area. By developing the right plaza experience, our client could then provide high-end office space above to attract small local Miami firms and entrepreneurs looking to work each day in a dynamic city community.