This post is part 19 of a continuing discussion (thread) titled Tomorrow’s Miami: Evolving Towards a Sustainable 21st Century Metropolis.

In a previous post, I discussed recent development in the City of Miami.  Downtown Miami has been transformed in recent years by a development boom that has seen a new downtown emerge.  In particular, a new typology for the residential-mixed use skyscraper has emerged that is responsive to local elements and conditions.  Almost every new building in Downtown Miami and the surrounding areas follows this model.

EVOLUTION OF RESIDENTIAL LIVING

Let us now take a moment to analyze the new residential building typology that has emerged in the high-density areas of Miami, especially in Downtown Miami, during the latest boom cycle. This will help us understand the dominant building type today in Miami, and understand it’s effects. This typology has a direct evolution that can be traced through time in the multifamily developments in Miami. (IMG I)

One can see the prevalence of two dominating features in multi-family development in the image.  The first is the integration of the automobile (red) to suit an autocentric lifestyle present very early in Miami’s history.  The second feature is a combination of the pool deck, recreation deck, or other recreational facilities (blue) which have been a dominant feature in residential design.  These can be directly attributed to the warm weather and the recreational stigma attached to living in Miami, which stems in great part from the Royal Palm Hotel.  By looking at all the diagrams, one can see that the pool deck along with the parking lot/garage have served as invariable architectural elements and identifiable features that have been continuously present in multifamily residential construction over time. 

Starting with the small multi-family duplex or triplex in the early 20’s and 30’s, one can see a clear evolution going all the way to the tall residential skyscraper of today. During the middle of the 20th century, these small two to four unit single story buildings gave way to larger, higher density mid-rise buildings on sprawling surface parking lots. As land prices increased and buildings grew in size, sprawling horizontal surface lots typical of the 60’s and 70’s gave way to condensed, vertical parking garages and taller high-rise buildings. In some instances, parking solutions at that time involved a combination of both parking garages and surface lots.  Amenity decks, typically at ground level, were eventually (and efficiently) condensed into the top floor of the parking garage.  Recently, as land prices continued to increase and developers moved back to urban centers, buildings grew even taller and more condensed — therefore arriving on the standard residential skyscraper typology in use today. 

Throughout these changes, one can see that the standard residential typology has grown taller and denser over time, but the dominant features of parking and recreation, although changed and morphed, have remained.  Whether one lives in a small apartment building in Sunny Isles Beach, a mid-rise in North Miami Beach, or in a skyscraper in Downtown Miami, one or more of these dominant elements are usually present.  In Miami, it is hard to find a building without parking or without some type of recreational amenities.  The new residential typology in Downtown Miami is no different – it has within it those same elements.  

NEW TYPOLOGY

The recently emerged, multi-family residential building typology in Miami can be divided into three parts; a parking garage (red) with a pool deck or a recreation deck above (blue), a habitable liner (dark grey) with ground level retail (yellow) to create a pedestrian friendly environment and shield the garage from view, and a tall tower (light grey) holding most of the residential units.  (IMG II)   Retail can be one or more floors, the parking garage is typically six to ten floors, and the towers range anywhere from thirty to sixty or more floors.  It is important to remember that parking garages must typically be built above ground because Miami is directly above sea level.  Placing large parking garages underground, as in many other cities, is economically prohibitive in Miami because of the high water table.  Almost every single new building in Downtown Miami has followed this typology.

More than one tower can also be attached to the garage if parking and zoning standards can be accommodated. (IMG III)   Even more interesting is that these buildings can be built abutting each other, forming a cohesive walkable block from individual developments. (IMG IV)   Great densities and a high number of cars can be kept in a relatively small lot. At street level, this ideally creates eight to ten stories of habitable living space and retail lining on the street, creating an active street of a human scale comparable to many European or Northeastern American Cities. It also allows the high density towers of more than sixty stories to rise at different intervals, minimizing the canyon effect created by massive skyscrapers and allowing sunlight to reach the street below.  This also satisfies the high price and high land density requirements od downtown, making development feasible for developers in the urban core.  Of course, this is all accomplished by ideally keeping all parking structures and machinery out of sight, while maintaining a private recreational deck that is both out of sight from the public while visible to most residents in the towers.

Everglades on the Bay, a recently completed projected in Downtown Miami shows many of these elements being successfully integrated within the project. (IMG V)   There are liner unit’s nine stories high keeping the garage away from view and providing a safe and habitable street with retail and apartments directly above the street.  There are two towers rising forty nine stories high holding over seven hundred units.  There is also lush tropical deck sitting on top of the garage hidden away from street view and providing the privacy residents require when relaxing. 

On the back side away from the street, the garage is left exposed, where other buildings already built or proposed are attached to the building.  This completes a continuous, architecturally diverse, safe, pedestrian environment.  It also displays awareness of its neighbors, by keeping the base of the buildings in constant relationship with buildings around it.

Down the street, near Margaret Pace Park, an unfinished block shows us how different buildings in this typology come together.  (IMG VI) This image taken at the backside of new buildings around the park shows how buildings come together to form an entire block.  While this image shows the backside of two buildings coming together and an empty lot directly behind them, one day the empty space at the backside of these buildings will be occupied by another building (inverted) abutting them as well – therefore completing the entire perimeter of the block (see IMG IV).   The backside of these buildings, between the completed buildings in the picture and the empty lots, will one day become a service alley into the buildings – most of the parking will remain out of sight from the main street.  The front of these buildings is lined with residential units that hide the garage from view. 

Overall, almost every new residential-hotel skyscraper in Downtown Miami has used this new typology.  The typology has emerged as a solution to the dominant typological elements (such as the pool deck and parking garage)  in residential construction as well as to the local environmental and geographical conditions (high water table = above ground parking garage) in Miami.  When executed successfully, the building is a worthy, local typological solution for walkable streets, urban environments, the automobile, privacy, the recreational lifestyle, and land density economic realities. 

Sadly however, the execution of these buildings has been less than stellar in many occasions.  Click here to continue…

Related posts:

1. Criticism of New Typology (Tomorrow’s Miami : Part 20)
2. Where do the Costs Come From (Tomorrow’s Miami : Part 14)
3. New Development Emerges (Tomorrow’s Miami : Part 18)
4. Affordability Case Study (Tomorrow’s Miami : Part 10)
5. Purging Unnecessary Costs (Tomorrow’s Miami : Part 15)