Inside Look at ArchitectonicaGEO

ArchitectonicaGEO

      Our second stop on our site visit tour was with Jovany Chediak of ArchitectonicaGEO.  ArchitectonicaGeo is a division of Architectonica and they are landscaping architects for large scale projects. Jovany Chediak is the lead landscaping architect for the Brickell City Centre.  He began the meeting discussing the Brickell City Centre project.  The Brickell City Centre is a 1.05 billion dollar mixed use project located in the urban core of Miami.  It is the largest assemble land development in Miami and covers 12 acres.  ArchitectonicaGeo’s vision of landscape design for this project was to incorporate the original pinewoods forest of Brickell into this project and that was their basis for the entire project.  Since there was not a lot of opportunity at street level to incorporate landscaping their idea was to have a roof top gardens and interior landscaping throughout the commercial areas of the project.  Inspiration from the native pine woods is reflected throughout the project with native plants, natural finish materials, interior coy ponds and green walls.  Jovany described how green roofs benefit the project by reducing A/C loads, treating storm runoff, and provides great amenities.  The challenge the developer faced was that this project was not on the water and landscaping and small gathering places were a central part of the amenities and appeal to potential buyers.  Some of the elements such as the Koi ponds not only provided a visually appealing gathering area but also served to cool the interior and the bubbling of the water reduced commercial noise and street traffic.

What a great opportunity our class had to witness the vast scale and operational undertaking with a project of this size. Swire started accumulating this land in 2011, which was the depth of the great recession.  What a gamble to envision such a development during that time period and to see this project begin to deliver units and commercial space in such a strong market.  Long term vision and planning is key to hitting huge successes in the real estate market and this property is a perfect case study of just that.