Working in collaboration with the world-renowned Renzo Piano Building Workshop, the 3-acre landscape for Eighty Seven Park in Miami Beach enables the iconic luxury condo to float above a lush oasis. Inspired by the site’s extraordinary setting and the native and subtropical ecology of Fouth Florida, the private and public, natural and manmade, and indoor and outdoor spaces are seamlessly brought together in a series of gardens and landscapes.
Sitting as a bookend against the last plot of beachfront open space north of Miami Beach, Eighty Seven Park is located at the edge of the city where park meets the ocean. Floating above a tropical nature park the south – once filled with former villas along Atlantic way – the scheme integrates the building’s ground level to create a holistic series of landscapes. Carefully preserving and enhancing the natural dune system and urban conditions of the coastline, it takes the site’s best attributes and brings them into harmony – today, the site is an urban Eden unlike any other in South Florida.
Utilising the unique setting, the scheme blurs the boundaries of inside and outside, bringing the Miami beach experience into the building’s lobby, which sits floating above a reflective pool of water and offers views towards the ocean across the pool deck. Additionally, inspired by the legacy of Miami Beach and Art Basel, the design includes careful curation and positioning of world-class artworks within the landscape.
The scheme creates a fresh dialogue with the vibrant community of North Beach, offering unobstructed views towards the ocean from Collins Avenue, aided by sinking the parking of the condo building underground. Two public connections provide access to the coast and south beach as a benefit to the public realm, the southern connection offers extra width and comfort through a sequence of benches and shady native planting. In the two-acre private oasis on the north side of the property, two elegant water channels and a series of minimalist footpaths guide the viewer from the urban biscayne bay out into the atlantic ocean.
Guided by the coastal spectrum of plant species, the team curated stunning, native, and expressive coastal and upland planting. Starting from the restored dunes, clusters of wind-bent coconut palms give way to a grove of dancing sea grapes, specially pruned to enhance the distinct silhouettes of each tree. Further upland, a collection of specimen gumbo limbos, with their unique red bark color and flaky texture, comprise the heart of the garden and create a transition zone between native coastal species and upland sub-tropical planting. Protected from the salt-spray and hurricane winds by the site’s topography and the building form, the planting in the entrance area is comprised of the most tropical species.
Architecture offices involved in the design: renzo piano building workshop, RDAI architecture, lux populi
Project location (For publicly accessible projects please include exact address. For Private gardens place write Country or State): 8701 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33154, United States
Design year: 2014 – 2016
Year Built: 2016 – 2020
