Archive for the 'Office' Category

Old Spanish Village

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on October 19, 2007
in Allen Morris Company, Coral Gables, Green Buildings, LEED, Office, Old Spanish Village, Ponce Circle and Urban Design
. 1 Comment
The planners for the old Spanish Village development along Ponce Circle in the Gables are working to create a new office building (shown above) which would attempt to replicate the Barcelona Cathedral: I’m not sure what the final building will look like, but I’ve always been curious to see a modern day Gothic building rise. The 215,000 square foot office building is slated to become the centerpiece of the development and the new home of the Cisneros Group.
Given the Gothic design, I’m kind of curious to see how the rest of the development will be designed. Hopefully, the final product will be as nice of an addition to the Gables skyline as the Alhambra Tower recently was…

Here was the original design when the tower was slated for condominiums:

One Bayfront Plaza Rising

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on July 31, 2007
in Architecture, FECR, Office, One Bayfront Plaza, Skyline, Skyscrapers, Terra Architecture, Tibor Hollo and Urban Design
. 11 Comments
One Bayfront Plaza is poised to become Miami’s first super tall (1000′) and truly iconic skyscraper. With the recent approval by the City Commission, the 2 million square foot office development is ready to proceed through the initial stage of pre-construction. The $1.8 Billion project will feature 2 million square feet of leasable office space, 120,000 square feet of exhibition or banquet space, 112,000 square feet of retail, and a 850 room hotel. The project is slated to break ground in 2011 and has attained preliminary approval to rise to 1,049 feet (roof) and 1,180 feet to the top of the spire…
One Bayfront Plaza is being developed by Florida East Coast Realty (Tibor Hollo) and was designed by Terra Group Architects. Frankly, I’m impressed by the eastern facade of the structure but dismally disappointed by the initial designs of the west side, pictured above. The two structures appear to be disjointed and fail to compliment each other accordingly. Hopefully, the west tower will be subject to further redesigns to make this a visually appealing structure from all angles, not just the east…

The Miami Office Boom

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on April 19, 2007
in LEED, Miami, Miami 21, Office and Skyscrapers
. 3 Comments
1450 Brickell, the newest office building in Brickell since the Espirito Santos Plaza, broke ground last week. The 33 story glass tower will feature over 500,000 square feet of office space and is aiming for Silver LEED certification.

Meanwhile, just up the avenue today will be the official ground breaking ceremony on the Brickell Financial Center office buildings at 600 Brickell. The 40 story, 600,000 square foot office building is set to be complete in 2009 and is also seeking LEED certification.

Office Boom Could be a Boon

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on July 17, 2006
in Construction, Density, Development, Miami 21, Office and Skyscrapers
. 0 Comments

The following is a guest article written by Ryan. This article was written before the Herald’s article yesterday regarding the potentially impending office boom we could soon be witnessing and therefore bears little reference to it. Enjoy.

Greetings and Salutations. I’m Ryan, The Sprawl Hater, and I’ll be dropping by Transit Miami once a week or so to offer my perspective on the oft-frustrating, always complex, but never dull journey that is Miami’s growth and development.

Has anyone noticed something conspicuously missing from the explosive high-rise boom in and around downtown? If you guessed low vacancy rates, you’re probably right. If you guessed a legitimate, centrally located transit hub, you’d probably be right, too. Nevertheless, I’m talking about office buildings, people.

Last I checked South Florida had the worst office sprawl in the country. That’s right folks, worse than sultans of sprawl Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas. A Brookings Institute study in 2003 found that of the 13 largest metropolitan regions, South Florida’s major downtown (MIAMI!) had a mere 13% of the metro’s office space. Even worse, virtually ALL office growth in Miami-Dade since 1987 has occurred out of downtown. HOW COULD THIS BE? Or, more importantly, what is being done about it?

Unfortunately, not enough is being done. With nearly 100 new high-rise or mid-rise buildings finished, approved, or planned between Wynwood and Brickell, you can pretty much count the number of new office buildings on one hand. It’s possible we could have 70,000 more condo units here in only a few more years, so where are the new office buildings to compliment 100,000+ aristocrats professionals living in our city’s elongated, coast-hugging core?

The building on the right in the picture above is Met II, the largest and most noteworthy office building currently approved for construction. It will be between 31-46 floors and is set for completion by 2009 (I’d be willing to take bets on that.) A couple others have been proposed in the Brickell area, but there’s no guarantee they’ll be built – and it still isn’t nearly enough.

This could be a big problem, people. The building boom in and around downtown has been mostly good (sans affordable housing, BayLink, and a delayed Streetcar), but without the offices it runs the risk of becoming a high-density bedroom community. This ultimately defeats the purpose of living downtown: easy pedestrian, taxi, and/or transit access to work and home. An office shortage means demand for parking downtown will remain high (stay tuned for a later post on this quagmire). The last thing we need is people living on Miami Ave. and commuting to Doral office park cities out in suburbia.

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