Blu Dot’s flagship store in the Miami Design District elegantly stages their latest furniture collections and accessories behind a 3 story, 58’ tall glass veil.

This building acts is an intermediary between the burgeoning retail district to the south and the Buena Vista East Historical Neighborhood enclave to the north. This delicate urban condition required an architectural solution that at once served the commercial ambition of the developer and the sensitivities of the residential community. 

To trestle such a contextual middle ground of two divergent urban conditions, various volumetric studies were tested to determine a suitable form for the building. 

Through site observations and discussions with the neighborhood association, a series of architectural solutions to enhance the project were explored. Ultimately, a simple, pitched roof form was deemed a sensitive transition between the commercial and residential districts while mitigating daylighting and shadow concerns on the adjacent residence.  

The visual mass of the building when experienced from the commercial public zone is very different to that of the residential neighborhood. The stately gabled curtain wall facade set within a cast in place concrete frame, harmonizes with the scale and materiality of other commercial buildings in the Design District.

The resultant architectural duality, expressed by the gable and pitched roof forms, manifest a distinctive design compromise between two disparate, uniquely urban conditions.