Developers Are Racing To The Top…Literally

Miami is gearing up to be the next super-tall city. Swire Properties of Brickell City Centre fame are planning a new 1,049-ft. mixed-use tower on Brickell Avenue, aptly if unimaginatively named One Brickell City Centre. If the Arquitectonica-designed tower wins FAA approval, it would become the tallest building in the Magic City. Though renderings don’t show too much, the rather generic glass tower with giant square “notches” would include retail, offices, condos and a luxury hotel with a kick-ass lounge at the tippy top.

Close (but no cigar) behind is Tibor Hollo’s One Bayfront Plaza, currently approved for 1,010 feet. Designed by KPF, the wedge-shaped tower will contain an 800-room hotel, 130,000 square feet of exhibition space, offices and 640 condos. Hollo’s other pet project—The Panorama—is currently under construction and, once completed, will surpass the current crown-bearer (the 789-ft. Four Seasons) by 100 feet. Both towers would trump Jeff Berkowitz’ 1,000-ft. SkyRise Observation Tower, despite his marketing of it as the tallest structure in the city.

  • A rendering of the Skyrise Observation Tower
  • Rendering of The Panorama
  • Rendering of One Bayfront Plaza

Hollo tells the Herald that the race to the top has more to do with convenience than bravado—it’s simply easier to build one really tall tower than a series of smaller buildings. Miami developers have been trying to crack the 1,000-ft. cap for years, but prior FAA regulations deemed it unsafe. It wasn’t until recently that city officials were able to convince the FAA that an extra hundred feet or two wouldn’t hurt anybody, but then the recession hit and plans ground to a halt. Now, it’s anyone’s game, and if Swire and Hollo’s projects are approved, both would join the elite ranking of the top ten tallest buildings in the U.S. On your marks…get set…go!
—Margina Demmer


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