This building’s design takes a bold approach on what to do with a tight 50 Ft wide and 112.5 Ft deep vacant lot, zoned for medium density multifamily development, where parking is optional but always taken.

The challenge of making these projects work on such small sites stems from an economic perspective. Usually, you need to provide parking lifts, elevators, stairs, and a minimum of corridors and other common areas to provide dwelling unit access and means of egress, making construction and maintenance costs creep up fast. With that in mind, we set out to design the most efficient parti we could muster and peel off and remove as many cost-inducing elements as possible.

After deducting 5 Ft parking setbacks from both sides, one winds up with the exact minimum width required to fit in 18 Ft deep parking spaces and a 22 Ft wide parking aisle. The whole site thus allows for up to 8 parking spaces without resorting to parking lifts. Notice that the building setbacks are 2.5 Ft tighter on both sides, which would make columns on the east side of the building fall in the middle of the driveway, obstructing vehicle maneuvering, so we decided to remove them completely. Instead, we inserted the two stairs and a series of parallel shear walls cantilevering eastward and supporting the rest of the building.

When choosing what to develop, our client made the conscious decision not to use the maximum density, FAR, and height entitlements allowed, limiting the program to four 3 bed / 2.5 bath dwellings at roughly 1,500-1,550 SF each, geared towards starting families with children. Currently, there is a very limited supply of similarly sized units, for the trend is to maximize the yield of any given parcel and fit as many small apartments as possible. The downside of that is that such small units only lend themselves to a rather transient population, young students and employees in their first jobs or making it out on their own, who very soon grow out of the place and need to move on. Small units are also conducive to short-term rentals and everything good and bad that comes with them. We believe it is important to provide options for everybody, in this case without even maximizing our buildable envelope, and that the neighborhood at large is only better for it.

Making all units multistory removed the need for an elevator and other vertical access constraints. Unlike in most other similar dwellings, a decision was made to place the bedrooms on the second floor, bypassed by the access corridor as one enters the apartments, and then the living spaces above to maximize views. Access stairs continued the vertical progression to the private rooftop terraces.

The next step was dressing up what would otherwise be a very utilitarian, boxy building. We started by adding a continuous overhang system going out as much as the zoning ordinance would allow, providing shade, and with rounded corners in a nod to the local architectural precedents. The proposed building was then split into two by a fire wall, with each half having a single means of egress shared by the two dwellings on that side, thus removing the need for a corridor connecting the two stairs. The required fire wall extensions beyond the facades engendered a series of vertical wings, which connected with the overhangs and created a brise soleil that embraces the whole building, with different rhythms on different facades, as they respond to distinct realities on both sides of the lot.

The fenestration reflects the hierarchy of interior spaces, with the tall, social areas of the Living, Dining, and Kitchen having vast expanses of glass, and the more private and intimately scaled bedrooms and baths featuring smaller windows, but for the corners.

A stylized address number sign, with pale blue neon light bouncing from the facade wall behind, becomes a focal point on the facade and a visual cue to the iconic imagery of the Ocean Drive hotels and apartment buildings from its Art Deco heyday.

When designing our buildings we are not concerned with grasping the spirit of the age, something ephemeral, but rather with comprehending the spirit of the place which is enduring. This certainly animated the outcome here, as it feels quite at home in Miami Beach.