Brickell City Center: Bridging the Gap Between Outdoor Feel and Urban Look

On our second site visit this past Saturday, we visited the offices of ArquitectonicaGEO. Arquitectonica was founded in 1977 by Bernardo Fort-Brescia, along with a young group of architects, in Coconut Grove. The firm has grown expansively, with branches all over the world and over 800 architects in their roster. The GEO division is a branch of the main company that focuses on sustainable design and use of natural green resources for aesthetics and environmental solutions. Jovany Chediak, a landscape design architect for the firm, showed us the offices and discussed their latest big project.

This branch is currently undertaking the Brickell City Centre, a massive billion-dollar mixed-use project in Miami’s financial district, having been selected by Swire Properties. We were shown around by Mr. Chediak, who is the lead landscape designer for this undertaking. He explained that the firm was trying to combine the urban downtown design with green landscaping to bring an outdoor feeling to the building. Having the same firm do the project and landscaping allows a collaborative effort with less debate.

The Miami Brickell City Centre is the largest and most ambitious project in the Downtown Miami area. Swire Properties acquired 12 acres of land in different parcels, which connect to each other, allowing them to maximize their capabilities within the Miami21 regulations, creating an extraordinary mixed-use project that includes residential, office, retail and hospitality.

The retail component takes shape in the form of an open-air mall, the architecture of which will allow a natural breeze while still sheltering shoppers from the elements. They did this utilizing a fascinating, trademarked feature called a Climate Ribbon. This is considered their flagship feature for sustainability, and is made up of a steel trellis, fabric, and a continuous surface of glass; all this serves to capture incoming sea breezes to regulate airflow and temperature, blocking inclement weather, and gathering rainwater for re-use in the landscaping. The greenery will be made up of native habitat plants and trees, mostly from local growers. Mr. Chediak told us that some of the plants had to be ordered and maintained right from the beginning of the project to ensure they were ready to be implemented when the time was right, which was no easy task. I could not help but marvel at the intelligent design of the whole project; the Centre will be a showcase of Miami’s natural beauty, its thriving business section, and architectural progress.

ArquitectonicaGEO showed their prowess in tackling the numerous problems that a firm encounters when building in an urban area. To continue their native habitat inspiration, all the structures, including parking, are connected so that the rooftops could be fully utilized. The roofs will feature gardens to provide aesthetics and a home for local birds, while also containing solar panels for sustainable use and reducing energy costs. They continued their ingenuity all the way to the ground level, where they use a variety of landscaping to denote entrances to the different features of the center; this would include more formal plantings at the entrance to the hotel, and a variety of shade-bearing trees along the sidewalks for pedestrians, as well as sculpture-style benches. They even found a way to implement piping for flooding in a creative way, including usable furnishings that cover utilities while not in service. The firm was able to obtain a variance and push their landscaping to the curve, which creates a safe walking space for pedestrians, as well as street-level retail signage.

I mentioned the Climate Ribbon feature before, as it is a fascinating endeavor, and indeed may be the first of its kind. The Miami Herald discussed its design and creation in an article last month. The Climate Ribbon cost $30 million to create, and was designed in collaboration between a Paris-based design firm, Carnegie-Mellon University, and Cardiff in the United Kingdom. It is believed to be the first of its kind, but may very well influence architectural design for years to come. Its design will combine natural light and passive cooling to create a welcoming environment to shoppers along its four-block run of retail. The entire structure is going to be LEED-certified for neighborhood development, as well as LEED Gold for some of the towers within. Anyone who has read about green energy certification knows that to achieve it with one building is no easy task; to cover twelve acres of developing land is a massive accomplishment that required a lot of foresight and planning, and the willingness to put the capital down for it.

As it is practically the first of its kind, only time will tell if the Climate Ribbon will stand up to our  Miami weather, but Swire Properties is confident. Other experts in the industry say that it is a good thing that a luxury project such as this will encourage green solutions, but some, such as Steve Mouzon, says that while it is good, the same effects can be achieved at lower costs. He believes that the Ribbon is grandiose and expensive to try to emphasize just how “green” the project is; similar results could be achieved with less spectacle. Regardless, I consider this project to be amazing, and I can’t wait until I can see this development in action. All parties involved have made an extraordinary effort to put Miami’s progress on display.