Herzog & de Meuron’s Jade Signature is Really Far Along
May 23rd photo via Jade Signature.
Construction at Jade Signature, designed by starchitects Herzog & de Meuron, is looking really far along from this photo posted to the project’s Facebook page on May 23rd. Count for yourself, but construction has at least reached the halfway point of the luxury condominium tower’s full 57 stories. And that’s including the 50-foot-deep underground parking garage. Meanwhile, the project has dropped a flood of (mostly) new renderings, showing off its penthouse and unit interiors, and some additional common spaces. Check them all out, below.
Should Miami Beach Build a Fire Station & Parking Garage in Flamingo Park?
Proposed Flamingo Park Fire Station and Garage Option.
The City of Miami Beach’s Neighborhoods Committee is meeting today to study a potential new fire station and parking garage in Flamingo Park at a proposal at a meeting today. The garage/station complex would go at the south end of the park where a parking lot currently exists, nearby the existing fire station, and potentially also absorb the Police Athletic League building next door. The city is looking at various design options, although they all do essentially the same thing: gobble up public park space that could go to other, more public, uses in the future. And at either 50 or 75 feet high depending on the ‘preferred alternative’ the city picks, the building would tower over the park and neighborhood around it, where zoning typically limits height to 35 feet. ‘Save Miami Beach Neighborhoods’ is opposing the project, with a petition on their website.
Downtown’s Magnificent Walgreens Building Has Hit the Market
Walgreens Building
The historic Walgreens Building on Flagler and E. 2nd Street, a beautiful classic streamlined moderne retail building from the art deco era that in recent years was home to the la época department store (which has its own fascinating history), has hit the market. With 5 stories above ground and 1 below, the 50,000 square foot structure has that rarest of Miami amenities, an actual basement. Inside is a grand, three-story atrium space with circular staircase and glass elevator, which originally contained, believe it or not, a Walgreens Drug Store. The price is “To be determined by the market” apparently, but if your’e a serious buyer (who intends to treat it as well as it deserves and not tear it down for some ugly P.O.S.), the Walgreens building is listed by Gerard Yetming and Mika Mattingly of Colliers International Realty. So, go ask them.
Deca Capital Group has withdrawn their request for a height variance to build a 90-foot high mixed use project of 15 luxury condos on top of premium retail on Purdy Avenue, after controversy ensued in the neighborhood, reports the Real Deal. Tentatively titled Sunset Harbour Residences, renderings made the design look rather sexy and sleek, with long horizontal lines and a cross-block breezeway. The design would have exceeded the zoned 50-foot height limitations of the area, which annoyed some neighbors including those next door at the Lofts at South Beach, who would’ve lost their north facing views. So, it looks like the little guy (or at least littler guy) won after all.
Brickell’s Villa Regina, Known for its Yaacov Agam Rainbow Facade, is Redoing its Lobby
Villa Regina, one in a row of iconic and brightly colored 1980s, Miami Vice/Cocaine Cowboys-era condo towers along Brickell Avenue, is redoing its lobby. The building is dominated by its bright rainbow facade created by the artist Yaacov Agam, an Israeli sculptor and experimental artist best known for his contributions to optical and kinetic art (according to Wikipedia) and for colorful facades that captured a certain architectural moment in the 1980s. Originally developed by Nicholas Morley, Villa Regina was also one of developer Ugo Colombo’s earliest projects (see below).
The facade was recently restored and is staying put luckily. Apparently the building’s owners did away with the original lobby 5-6 years ago, and have now decided to do away with it again, with a new, much lighter, design by John Richard Medina & Associates Architects. Considering how radical of a change the new lobby appears to be in renderings, let’s hope it coordinates with the rest of the facade.
Vizcaya Reopens its Marine Garden
Photos by Sean McCaughan
After being closed to the public for significantly longer than a decade, Vizcaya Museum & Gardens has reopened its marine garden, the historic linkage between the formal gardens to the north and the more informal, lagoon gardens to the south which are now gone. The restoration of the marine garden has just begun, but giving renewed access to the public can only help efforts to bring it back to the way it was.
This is How Much Each Icon Brickell Owner Will Have to Pay to Fix That Giant Leaking Pool
Icon Brickell Pool
The Icon Brickell Master Association sent out a letter to ‘All Association Members,’ meaning every owner in the three-towered colossus, to lay out how much each is expected to pay, broken down per unit, for the repair and replacement of Icon Brickell’s poorly constructed pool. The cost of the entire $14 million project is being split up among the development’s 1,718 total units, the newly rebranded W Hotel, and even (from the looks of it) the restaurants, proportional to each owner’s percentage ownership of the development. This breaks down the amount of the special assessment to thousands of dollars for a typical unit, but not tens of thousands. Reasonable? The association is set to vote on the special assessment on 14th.
Heineken is Crowdfunding Some of the Miami Marine Stadium’s Restoration
Photo via Flickr Creative Commons/ El Gringo
Heineken is donating $20,000 and crowdfunding another $80,000 to remove the seats in the architecturally iconic Miami Marine Stadium, initiating what will hopefully be the first step in its restoration, reports the Miami New Times. The City of Miami Commission is expected to approve a measure accepting the funds tomorrow, and the campaign, which is kicking off Heineken’s “Cities” Campaign, will be launched on Indiegogo next month. If this works, it could finally mean the beginning of a restoration that has seen years of false starts despite the tireless work of locals like activist Don Worth and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “Whoever loves the stadium will be able to give $5 to bring it back to life. For so long, people have been like, ‘We need to find huge gifts from major donors,’ so this is different in that it’s allowing residents directly to bring it back to life, and that’s something that doesn’t happen with a lot of restoration projects.” said Jason Lloyd Clement, director of community outreach at the National Trust. The cost of the hoped for full restoration, between $37 million and $40 million, is still to be addressed.
So This is What a “Hamptons Inspired” Miami House Looks Like?
According to the broker’s remarks, this large family home at 4020 Kiaora Street in Coral Gables, is “Hamptons inspired.” The $10.9 million spread is mostly traditional, with white clapboard siding and vaulted, gabled ceilings, which are all nice and Hamptons-y. It mixes things up a bit with a few touches that are sort of modern or post-modern, or something, like a clerestory set of apertures (would ‘triangular archways’ be an oxymoron?) above the large back porch. Yet it does seem to work. All in all, not a bad package.
More Delays for the Big Ol’ Miami Beach Convention Center Hotel
Former Portman proposal for Miami Beach Convention Center Hotel
The timeline for the proposed Miami Beach Convention Center Hotel has more than likely been delayed by a substantial amount of time due to the indecisiveness of a Blue Ribbon panel set up to address the issue by Mayor Philip Levine. The convention hotel was meant to accompany the new convention center, which is currently under construction.
According to the Real Deal, the commission “did not reach any agreement late Monday on where any new hotel should be built, how many rooms it should contain, how tall it should be and whether or not it should incorporate the Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater into its design.” which means they made pretty much zero progress, and because a voter ballot measure is required, and that ballot measure has to be written by August to make it into the November ballot, it’s “highly unlikely” that’s going to happen. As you may remember, the last time the hotel was on the ballot, with a gigantic and rather blah design, it was defeated (I once wrote on Curbed Miami the design looked “like a bad copy of the Fountainebleau, on steroids”). In response, Jack Portman, the only developer who was willing to take on the City of Miami Beach’s frustrating inaction on this issue is still sticking around. Portman, his company, has been the only bidder for the hotel in a while. “I think he just sit tight” Mr. Portman said, showing that by now he should probably be considered a minor saint.