Archinect - News

OMA breaks ground on The Perigon Miami Beach

2024-04-22T12:28:00-04:00

OMA has broken ground on its new Miami Beach development called The Perigon. The project from partner Jason Long at 5333 Collins Avenue will reach a height of 17 floors when it first opens to residents in late 2026.

A total of 73 one- and two-bedroom residences are included, oriented around creating ocean vistas and including about 20,000 square feet of amenities spaces highlighted by a speakeasy and the latest restaurant concept from celebrity chef Shaun Hergatt.

Image credit: The Boundary

A double-height entry lobby welcomes residents to the building’s other features, including a conservatory space, film screening room, beach club, and 82-foot swimming pool. The building is conceived as a series of small rotated “towers.” The vistas are referencing European Riviera-style resort designs, reflected again in interiors designed by Tara Bernerd & Partners.

Image credit: The Boundary

Viewed from the outside, its singular form is define...

Miami Beach preservationists sound the alarm over concerning new building safety law

2024-03-26T15:04:00-04:00

The New York Times has picked a side in the fight between Miami Beach historic preservation advocates and developers supporting the recently signed Resiliency and Safe Structures Act, a law those in the former category claim will augment a devastating erasure of the local architecture character over time.

The rift that has for years played out amidst a backdrop that includes the tragedy at Surfside and a spate of new starchitect-designed developments on the nine-mile island has recent salients in the demolished Deauville Beach Hotel and the yet-decided fate of Miami Marine Stadium.

Advocates say the new law is a guise that uses climate change and building safety as its premise to usher in what is, in reality, a slate of insidious and destructive requirements. The Commercial Observer said they also work to "hamstring the powers of municipalities to dictate what can replace demolished structures."

Frank Gehry designs Louis Vuitton handbag collection for Art Basel Miami Beach

2023-12-12T12:53:00-05:00

The 21st edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, which took place last week, featured a special capsule collection from Frank Gehry for Louis Vuitton. The latest in a string of creative product collaborations that have to date included a special fragrance bottle design and the 2014 'Iconoclasts' series contribution offers a “reinterpretation” of the brand’s iconic Capucines bag designed to encapsulate four themes: 'Architecture and Form,' 'Material Exploration,' 'Animals,' and the 'Twisted Box.'

Image courtesy Louis Vuitton.

“It is hard to adjust the existing Capucines shape, which is very strong. We had been working on that design graphically in 2D, and the images that we had made were compelling. I was skeptical that the architectural shape would be strong enough, though,” Gehry explained in Vogue. “The final bag not only got the sculptural feeling that I was looking for, but it also has the graphic quality that we liked.”

Image © Mario Kroes

The fluid fish motif Gehry has revisited tim...

Miami's historic Deauville Beach Resort is demolished as a Frank Gehry-designed replacement fails to start

2022-11-15T18:15:00-05:00

The 17-story tower of the historic Deauville Beach Resort in Miami Beach was successfully imploded just after 8 a.m. Sunday. The oceanfront building at 6701 Collins Ave. crumbled to the ground in a matter of seconds after a series of thundering booms, marking the end of the road for a hotel that famously hosted the Beatles in 1964 and fell into disrepair in recent years.

The demolition brought to a close a tumultuous saga that saw local preservationists and the city government sue its owner Alex Meruelo over what they said was a wanton disregard for local heritage standards and other code violations more or less continuously issued since an electrical fire seriously damaged the Melvin Grossman-designed MiMo-style structure in July of 2017.

Previously on Archinect: Frank Gehry's Equinox Towers scheme is one step closer to reality in Miami Beach

Taking its place might be Frank Gehry’s proposed Equinox Towers scheme that is still awaiting approval before construction can begin on what has been labeled as a “passion project” for megadeveloper and Miami Beach native Stephen Ross. The plan was rejected by voters last week, leaving a void likely to be filled with a similar condominium design needed as a stopgap to the expected exodus brought about by the onset of new Surfside-inspired safety laws.

Today we lost the North Beach landmark Deauville Hotel due ...

Frank Gehry's Equinox Towers scheme is one step closer to reality in Miami Beach

2022-07-22T13:08:00-04:00

A Gehry Partners proposal to redevelop Miami’s historic Deauville Beach Resort into a luxury hotel and condominium dubbed Equinox Towers is gaining traction after officials there agreed to move the plan to public vote on Wednesday.

The firm’s initial concept model of the project revealed to the Miami Beach City Commission during the hearing indicated a 125-unit condo design to stand beside a taller sculptural hotel with 175 rooms, potentially bringing another big-name architectural design to an undiscovered portion of the city’s gilded 35-mile-long coast.

The architect is developing the newly-named plan alongside Related Companies CEO and Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, who told the Miami Herald the idea of having a second Gehry project in the neighborhood where he grew up “held a special place in his heart,” adding that it will “rebuild and lift a whole community.”

The Deauville Beach Resort as it appeared in 2016. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons user VM (CC BY-SA 4.0)

There h...

OMA unveils design for tiered residential tower in Miami Beach

2022-05-13T13:56:00-04:00

The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) has unveiled the design for a 17-story, 408,000-square-foot residential tower in Miami’s Mid Beach neighborhood.

The Perigon, located at 5333 Collins Avenue, will sit at the center of a rare section of Miami Beach that spans from the small village of Indian Creek to the Atlantic Ocean. Its unique position allows for dual-waterfront living. The project is being led by OMA Partner Jason Long.

Image Copyright OMA and Binyan Studios

The structure has been designed as a series of “towers” rotated to orient views away from neighbors and towards the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay. The towers are merged and lifted 45 feet above the flood line into a singular volume. This allows for panoramic views across each floor and opens up space on the ground level.

“Miami Beach combines natural beauty with urban density—Collins Avenue is at times a walled fortress blocking off the city from its best asset. We tried to make our building touch the ground...

Shohei Shigematsu of OMA reveals Miami Beach's first underwater sculptural park and artificial reef, The ReefLine

2020-11-20T13:50:00-05:00

Shohei Shigematsu of OMA announces the firm's upcoming project, the ReefLine, in collaboration with cultural placemaker Ximena Caminos. Leading the project's masterplan and structural design will be Shigematsu and his team, while Caminos will lead as its artistic director.

Known for its high-end coastal amenities and luxury living, the project seems like a fitting attraction to add to Miami's growing list of "must-sees" aiming to entertain as well as inform.

Image courtesy of OMA

The first of its kind in Miami Beach, the 7-mile park and artificial reef aims to "protect and serve Miami's marine life and coastal resilience efforts." Set to be completed in phases, the design team plans for the project's first mile to open in December 2021.

The first phase will open with permanent installations by Argentine conceptual artist Leandro Erlich (b. 1973) and Shohei Shigematsu/OMA. Image and text courtesy of OMA

"Erlich will create an underwater incarnation of his popular sand-sculpted “tra...

Contractor sues city of Miami Beach for unpaid work, officials say allegations are 'unfounded'

2020-02-05T10:51:00-05:00

Clark Construction Group is suing the city of Miami Beach for $90 million, which represents money the contractor says it is still owed under its contract for the $600 million, 1.5 million-square-foot renovation and expansion of the Miami Beach Convention Center. Clark alleges that changes and other extra costs add up to more than $70 million and the balance due on the contract, which includes retainage, is $20 million.

According to Construction Dive, city manager Jimmy Morales considers the allegations to be unfounded and said that Clark has still not reached substantial completion nor has the project received a temporary certificate of occupancy, which is why the city placed the contractor in default seven months ago. Some of the other allegations made by Clark include claims that the city did not pay for changes, reimburse Clark for its subcontractors for delays related to 2017's Hurricane Irma, refused to grant appropriate extensions of contract time and unreasonable held retainage, reports Construction Dive.

Why is Florida's coastal real estate still booming despite rising levels?

2019-02-20T13:49:00-05:00

In Florida, you will see a bewildering mix of optimism, opportunism and denial in the real estate market: luxury condominiums going up in flood-prone South Beach, and property values rising in the vulnerable Keys, post-Hurricane Irma. And though the House of Representatives passed a bill to require real estate agents to disclose flood risks, the Senate has not reviewed it, and a culture of “systemic, fraudulent nondisclosure” persists in high flood risk areas.

As part of her Climate Changed series for The Guardian, Megan Mayhew Bergman investigates the reluctance of Florida's condominium boom (and the wealthy investors behind it) to cool it a bit on new developments in the face of projected climate change-related devastation.

"Humans tend to respond to immediate threats and financial consequences – and coastal real estate, especially in Florida, may be on the cusp of delivering that harsh wake-up call," writes Mayhew Bergman. "The peninsula has outsized exposure: nearly 2 million people live in coastal cities. On the list of the 20 urban areas in America that will suffer the most from rising seas, Florida has five: St Petersburg, Tampa, Miami, Miami Beach and Panama City. In 2016, Zillow predicted that one out of eight homes in Florida would be underwater by 2100, a loss of $413bn in property."

Renzo Piano-Designed Miami Beach Penthouse Could Set Florida Record at $68 Million

2018-12-13T12:45:00-05:00

As Art Basel kicks off this week in Miami the city has a new listing to boast about that comes with everything you would expect for the highest-priced penthouse in the area right now: a celebrity architect, more square footage than its competitors, ocean views that go on forever and, of course, an unusual luxury amenity...

What's new, Miami? A look at the city's latest A-list architecture additions.

2018-12-04T13:37:00-05:00

Miami’s newest wave of designs could be its most ambitious yet. Fitting for a place that cherishes A-listers, virtually every celebrity architect in the world, and many rising stars, have built there in the last decade. The big names include Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, Herzog & De Meuron, Grimshaw, César Pelli, Richard Meier, Arquitectonica, Rafael Moneo, Jean Nouvel and Bjarke Ingels. The impressive results are scattered citywide, from Miami Beach to the thriving Design District.

Sam Lubell takes a stroll from Downtown Miami to the Design District to Miami Beach for a NYT roundup of (fairly) recent additions to the city's impressive portfolio of landmark buildings by noteworthy architects, including Herzog & de Meuron's 1111 Lincoln Road parking garage, OMA's Faena Forum arts center, Zaha Hadid Architects's One Thousand Museum condo tower, Grimshaw's Frost Science Museum, and, of course, the exuberant Museum Garage with facade contributions by J. Mayer H, WORKac, and others.

Garages, so hot right now.

Related: Listen to our podcast episode about Miami's garages, in our conversation with Thom Faulders of Faulders Studio.

12-story building collapses in Miami Beach

2018-07-23T15:51:00-04:00

A 12-story building collapsed in Miami Beach on Monday morning, leaving at least one person injured, police there said. [...] The building that collapsed at 5775 Collins Ave. was the 12-story Marlborough House, which was scheduled to be demolished to make way for a new condo building [...] Police said there was a demolition permit on file for the site, but not an implosion permit.

Miami's WSVN 7 News reports: "As the building was falling, and we’re seeing all this smoke come towards us, a boulder the size of the front-end of a car flew across the street, hit a man that was standing — one of the construction men — and the boulder hit him in the center of his chest."

Photo via Miami Beach Police on Twitter.

Floridians may not see eye-to-eye politically, but they all agree parking garages are awesome

2016-11-01T15:02:00-04:00

Paraphrased by the Washington Post, architect Terence Riley puts Miami's parking garages at the literal forefront of local urbanism: "In a city where everyone drives, the parking garage is the foyer." After all, Riley's firm, K/R Architects, curated the design of one of the city's most flamboyant parkades: Museum Garage, in the Miami Design District, features six different firms responsible for different facades: WORKac's and J. Mayer H.'s are pictured below (the former's design is on the left, mostly in white, bending into the latter's on the right, where things get more colorful) along with Clavel Arquitectos, Nciolas Buffe, K/R Architects, and Sagmeister & Walsh.

Museum Garage is in good company. Miami has a ton of architecturally bold parking garages—1111 Lincoln Road by Herzog & de Meuron (the cover image here) cost $65 million to build and is home to a designer shop and a private penthouse for its developer. The New York Times called it "a piece of carchitecture that resembles ...

The GSD vs. the sea: school's new Office for Urbanization tackles climate change in Miami Beach

2015-11-11T12:58:00-05:00

The times—specifically, the sea levels—are a changin'. Luckily, Harvard's Graduate School of Design has just launched a new initiative, the Office for Urbanization, to start amassing design research for new urban realities for cities around the world. The Office is described as being "a venue for the advancement of knowledge on the role of design research in relation to the social and environmental challenges associated with ongoing urbanization." The first project for the Office takes on the challenges facing Miami Beach.

As founding director Charles Waldheim, the John E. Irving Professor of Landscape Architecture, explained, “This foundational project of the Office for Urbanization will examine the implications of rising sea levels and increased storm events on the economy and ecology, infrastructure and identity of Miami Beach in relation to its metropolitan and regional contexts. The study will develop design strategies and scenarios to mitigate present threats and to anticipate ...

Miami, the great world city, is drowning while the powers that be look away

2014-07-11T13:11:00-04:00

Low-lying south Florida, at the front line of climate change in the US, will be swallowed as sea levels rise. Astonishingly, the population is growing, house prices are rising and building goes on. The problem is the city is run by climate change deniers.

OMA Wins Miami Beach Convention Center Competition

2013-07-18T13:59:00-04:00

News broke that the team consisting of OMA, Tishman Realty and UIA Management has won the Miami Beach Convention Center Master Plan competition. The team was one of the two remaining contestants fighting for the bid, the other team featuring BIG, West 8 and Fentress Architects among others [...]. OMA had already won another competition earlier this month for a large mixed-use development in Santa Monica, California.

Previously: BIG & Design Partners Propose Miami Beach Square as Massive Convention Center Redevelopment

BIG & Design Partners Propose Miami Beach Square as Massive Convention Center Redevelopment

2013-05-14T19:09:00-04:00

BIG together with West 8, Fentress Architects, John Portman & Associates (JPA), Revuelta Architecture International and developers Portman-CMC have unveiled the urban planning proposal Miami Beach Square, the centerpiece of a 52-acre Miami Beach Convention Center District development. Portman-CMC is one of two development teams currently in the race for the project.

UPDATE: OMA Wins Miami Beach Convention Center Competition

Come and celebrate the launch of Volume 29, ‘The Urban Conspiracy’

2011-11-30T17:37:20-05:00

If you're in Miami Beach later this week to attend Art | Basel | Miami Beach, don't miss this exciting event: Volume 29, ‘The Urban Conspiracy’ launches on Friday, December 2, with a special event at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Join Printed Matter, Jeffrey Inaba, and guests to celebrate the launch, the party starts at 5pm.

Here's some more info we've received from Jeffrey Inaba:

The term ‘senior moment’ typically refers to an age-related lapse in memory, logical thinking, or sense of orientation. But appearing at a loss is merely a common trick to conceal actions that are part of a highly coordinated effort. The elderly have been conspiring to realize a surprising mission. Volume 29 uncovers 'the plan', and identifies 'the locations', ‘members’, and ‘assets’ of this vast urban takeover. Contributors include Yoko Ono, Francesco Bonami, Michael Graves, Paola Antonelli, Junya Ishigami, and Lebbeus Woods.