These apartment dwellings provide rental units for young professionals and creative folks whose lives revolve around Miami Beach, yet cannot find suitable residence in overdeveloped South Beach and are therefore moving across Biscayne Bay into Midtown Miami or elsewhere, and would be a welcome addition to Biscayne Beach.

This particular neighborhood has two parks, easy access to the beach and town center, and a few MiMo apartment dwellings; yet it missed all real estate booms in the last forty years or so, with only one new multifamily building erected since 1979. Part of it has to do with its original platting from 1945. Back then, automobile use was rapidly extending but not nearly as widespread as today. Parking standards were less stringent or absent, and car ownership mostly restricted to one per household. As a result, the most efficient head-on double row with two-way driveway layout does not fit in the 50-55 Ft width of individual lots.

When seeing the Biscayne Beach and adjacent North Shore neighborhoods within their largest urban context, a few clearly distinguishable transportation corridors connect them with the rest of Miami Beach, Surfside and the metropolitan region at large. Other thoroughfares provide an essential link over the Tatum Waterway, and farther west into the Biscayne Point and Stillwater neighborhoods. Collins and Byron Avenues serve the first purpose whereas 77th and 85th Streets the latter. Crespi Boulevard, on the other hand, is the central North-South corridor within the Biscayne Beach neighborhood and the closest connection between the two bridges communicating with the rest of the world.

As new development pressure grows closer, the main question is how to allocate it in a way that preserves neighborhood character while enriching it. Ideally, it should happen along the Main Street or around the Neighborhood center, usually laid out at the intersection of the main corridors where retail and other uses would benefit from increased density, higher traffic and its resulting hustle and bustle, or around squares or public spaces around which to wrap civic uses and larger buildings. In the specific context of the Biscayne Beach neighborhood, densification has already started to coalesce along Crespi Boulevard waterfront properties. Rather than occupying individual lots with inefficient parking layouts yielding few apartment units and little space for ground floor uses, the large buildings constructed in the 1960s and 70s started to define a local building type with four to six stories above parking on two-lot parcels. This logical response to prevailing zoning and parking requirements achieved enough dwelling units to make new development economically viable.  Unfortunately, such buildings were designed as boxy dingbats lacking architectural interest and caused neighbors to spurn new development.

Located on a two-lot waterfront parcel near the confluence of Crespi Boulevard and 85th Street, the Crespi Apartments are a fresh take on this building type. Since both the boulevard and waterway are higher quality thoroughfares in the neighborhood grid, the front and rear facades are treated as having the same importance. The mandatory 20 Ft deep suburban front yard is brought down to 10 Ft, defining a more urban frontage as it aligns with adjacent buildings, and lofty townhouses line the two-story parking garage on both facades of the almost square podium. The townhouses are above FEMA’s Base Flood Elevation, whereas the elevator lobby and parking garage are set to meet the future crown of the road level, raised as part of the ongoing City of Miami Beach adaptation to Climate Change.

Automated parking lifts allow reaching the required number of parking spaces on a single deck, assigning what would otherwise be circulation ramp footprint to townhouses, and making good use of the parking garage volume. The three floors above get generous terraces and withdraw to the core from all sides to stay within the allowed zoning envelope and preserve direct sunlight unto neighbors. Sculptural tapered columns provide support to cantilevered terraces and the penthouse floor while achieving column-free interiors. The distinctive decorative “wave” concrete slabs loop up from one story to the next, their geometry gracefully crafted according to an original method, and act as both effective shading devices and an iconic image of building identity, with the whimsical aluminum circle latticework being a playful reference to the 1950s MiMo sunscreens. Together, curved slabs and circles become an allegory for the ceaseless breaking of sea waves, foam bubbles and all... The white smooth stucco, clear anodized aluminum, and lightly tinted glass material palette hark back to the simple aesthetic of early Modernism, at the root of the architectural tradition of Miami Beach.

Organized around a very efficient central circulation core, there is a more diverse dwelling unit mix than otherwise expected from a building this size. All of them make the most of expansive vistas and appeal to single-person households, roommate arrangements, and young families alike. The absence of typical amenities aims to keep rental fees and maintenance reasonably affordable, yet there are also a marina for the exclusive use of residents and a private rooftop terrace and Jacuzzi tub for each penthouse.