|
 |
|
College Station: Coming soon to
Miami Dade College — if Chad Oppenheim gets his
way. |
Downtown Miami will look pretty amazing when Miami
Dade College selects the winning design for a vast
new project at 500 Biscayne Blvd.
One of
the entries, by Miami architect Chad Oppenheim,
founding principal of Oppenheim Architecture + Design,
is conceived as a gateway to MDC’s Wolfson Campus. His
College Station, certified “green” design, encompasses 2
million square feet of space to house the college’s
schools of architecture, music and dance, as well as a
hotel, a fitness club, an Olympic-size pool, a meeting
center, 1,200 rental apartments, condos, a
30,000-square-foot museum, a 500-seat theater, retail
and cafés and 250,000 square feet of offices. In
Oppenheim’s design, the mixed-use project will feature
an open-air Arts Quad covering 41,000 square feet where
the campus and surrounding urban area come together in a
dynamic public space
Oppenheim says the inspiration for the intricate
building is actually the banyan tree, which has at its
base an incredible roots structure that merges to
support a broad canopy at the top. The building,
composed of two towers interconnected by a branching
top, forms an extruded quadrangle carved to maximize its
openness and flow of activity and create optimized space
for the varied components. The result is to create wide
top floors and a tightly packed bottom, with openness in
the middle so these middle floors could get lots of
light, something not normally feasible with a
100,000-square-foot floor plate. The overall building is
planned to be environmentally sustainable using
progressive building materials.
Puzzle
Solved
For
some time I have been curious about the brightly colored
figure of a girl outlined on a mid-rise building visible
from I-95. Now I know the building is the new Los
Sueños affordable rental apartment development on
36th Street, built by the Pinnacle Housing Group
in the Wynwood area, and the girl is an artwork by local
and noted artist Romero Britto.
The
official opening of the $33 million, 13-story Los
Sueños (it means “dreams”) was celebrated last week
with all the usual ribbon-cutting fanfare due the
occasion. But the real fanfare is the fact that 179
families now have homes in the one-, two- and
three-bedroom units at manageable rents for their
incomes — from $273 to $857 per month, based on
60 percent of the average median income or below.
Tenants
can enjoy high-quality appliances and ceramic tile
floors throughout the apartments, as well as cable and
high-speed Internet ports in the building. There’s also
an exercise facility, library, playground and common
laundry room. Los Sueños was designed by Miami architect
Kobi Karp and developed by Pinnacle Housing,
which has a good record for building and leasing
affordably priced apartments in Florida’s urban centers.
Funding for the development included a state of Florida
allocation of Housing Tax Credit Financing plus $4.5
million from Miami-Dade County Surtax Funds and $1.99
million from the city of Miami’s HOME Funds. Let’s hope
we see many more such projects soon.
Makeovers in Opa-locka
Anything that can reduce blight in an area is to be
welcomed, especially when it’s in an area as challenging
as Opa-locka (a city with so much potential — if
only!).
By
expanding the boundaries of two home improvement
programs in Opa-locka to include most of the city,
Miami-Dade County Commissioners hope they will encourage
upgrading properties. Commission Vice Chair Barbara
Jordan, whose district includes Opa-locka,
introduced the resolution to expand the qualifying area
to all homes in the region bordered by Northwest 151st
Street on the north, Northwest 135th Street on the
south, Northwest 17th Avenue on the east and Northwest
37th Avenue on the west.
The
Home Beautification Program
offers homeowners grants of up to $3,900 for painting,
landscaping and other aesthetic improvements. The
Home Rehabilitation Program provides loans of
up to $30,000 to homeowners of owner-occupied
single-family homes. The programs are funded from surtax
funds and the State Housing Initiative Program and
administered by the Opa-locka Community Development
Corporation.
Not a
Condo in Sight!
Development continues apace in Miami-Dade despite gloom
and doom in the residential sector. A new Marriott hotel
complex is planned for 1201 LeJeune Road next to Miami
International Airport.
Kobi
Karp Architecture and Interior Design has been
commissioned to provide the architectural and interior
design services for the expansion, which includes
complete renovation of the 366-room hotel and a new
10-story tower with 175 rooms. The existing hotel’s
lobby will be converted to a “great room” design for
more public space, plus a full-service restaurant and
lounge. The neighboring 285-room Fairfield Inn is to be
demolished and replaced with a 163-suite Residence Inn
by Marriott. The hotels will share a central plaza, plus
meeting and banquet space. The Marriott complex is due
for completion in early 2009.
Home
Sweet Hotel-Style Home!
It gets
better and better for deep-pocketed homeowners in Miami
and surrounding neighborhoods. Villazzo Living
(associated with Villazzo private hotels) is offering to
deliver luxury hotel-style services and amenities to
private homes. A personal concierge,
restaurant-at-home, butler or nanny are among the
services available, as well as basic monthly maintenance
(good for second-homeowners while they’re away). And
when houseguests are in town, the company can turn the
home into a hotel with housekeeping, turndown, arranging
dinner or transportation and whatever else makes life
easier.
Buzz
As more
rentals come on the market these days, triggered by
reluctant condo buyers trying to wait out the dry
selling season, condominium boards of directors must
accept limitations of their power.
“Often
condo boards are a little too zealous in attempting to
prevent the rental of condominium units and attempt to
place restrictions on the renter that would not
otherwise apply to the owner,” says attorney Eric
Glazer, whose Hallandale Beach and Boca Raton law
firm represents various condo associations in South
Florida. Glazer notes that “Florida Statute 718.106
expressly prohibits a board of directors
from discriminating against renters of condominium
units, and states that when a unit is leased, a tenant
shall have the same use rights as an owner in
the condominium property.”
And
unit owners who believe they can continue to enjoy the
condominium's facilities when they lease their unit are
in for a surprise. Dual usage by the tenant and the
owner is generally not permitted: Once the unit is
rented, the owner loses the right to use the property,
except as a guest.
Helen Hill is a
freelance writer specializing in real estate and
lifestyle topics.
Please send news
items on Miami-Dade real estate to
hhill@miamisunpost.com.
Comments?
E-mail
letters@miamisunpost.com.
