Arquitectonica has been selected as the master planners and designers of a new $1 billion mixed-use healthcare development in Miami, the firm announced via a press release today.

Site preparations will begin this year on the seven-acre Highland Park Miami development in the city’s Medical District. The plan for clients The Allen Morris Company and Black Salmon will increase the district’s total area by approximately ten percent, transforming it into the second largest such development in the country. 

Arquitectonica says the scheme will also include space for 1,000 residential units delivered by Oppenheim Architecture in addition to 500,000 square feet of medical offices and a new 150-room hotel. Local firm Naturalficial will also deliver a landscaped corridor at a previously underutilized area abutting the site, which is located within 400 feet of the nearest Metrorail station.

“With Highland Park, we’re creating a new center of gravity for the Medical District, with curated wellness-oriented retail and restaurants, world-class architecture, and best-in-class medical office and residential offerings,” W. A. Spencer Morris, the President of Allen Morris Company, said in a preview of the development. “The project will create a destination for the thousands of patients and employees at Jackson Memorial Hospital, the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, the Miami VA Healthcare System, as well as the larger Medical District ecosystem.” 

“This is a one-of-a-kind project in the health space as it integrates all the familiar uses found in daily urban life with the healthcare component, creating a convivial environment for its users and the surrounding community,” Bernardo Fort-Brescia, Design Principal at Arquitectonica continued. “In addition, it sits in a highly visible location on Miami’s most important east-west corridor along I-95 and equally important across from Jackson Memorial Hospital/University of Miami Health complex. Its graphically powerful design, and the sheer scale will announce the importance of this new neighborhood.”

The firm’s first foray into the healthcare sector will leverage a decade-long study made of similar health districts, such as the Mayo Clinic headquarters in Rochester, Minnesota. No construction timeline for the project was made available at press time. 

Also in Miami, Arquitectonica is nearing completion on a new $350 million cruise terminal project for the end of this year.