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The Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce 7th Annual City National Bank Better Beach Awards Winners

The Better Beach Awards honors the people, projects, and places that make Miami Beach a better place. Talented architects and designers are recognized for their work in preserving historical properties and designing innovative commercial and residential spaces. This year our clients Choeff Levy Fischman, KoDA, and Stantec were recipients of these awards.

Choeff Levy Fischman won Silver for Historic Preservation of their 27 Star Island project. The original structures were built during 1924 and 1926. CLF and the current owner worked very closely with the City of Miami Beach for several years to develop a plan to preserve and restore the historic structures, while allowing for a sizable development site for a new residence on the east end of the property. In an effort to preserve the historic home, the owner elected to demolish all non-historic additions, and physically relocate the historic structures to another area of the site, where they will be remediated and restored.

Wesley Kean, Principal and Founder of KoDA, won “Next Gen” Gold Award along with an Innovation Architecture/Residential Gold award for Meridian Court Residence. The house was designed to maximize outdoor space, while honoring the programmatic requirements of the family. It is comprised of a sequence of interior and exterior, public and private spaces that reveal themselves as one progresses through the site. By utilizing warm materials and referencing local and historical context, the design of this home becomes a cohesive addition to the neighborhood.

Lastly, Stantec won a Silver Innovative Design Award/Commercial for the interiors of Wix’s 24,000 square-foot office and technical center. Stantec created a space that is not only technologically innovative but also bright and colorful with ample lounge areas where staff can interact and unwind.  Design details included polished concrete floors and open exposed ceilings. Light wood tones and pops of yellow, green, orange and blue colors provided employees with a tropical feel.  There are bright green swings in the reception, cabana-style “hang out” spaces and a living wall at the entrance made of green moss displaying the Wix logo while also bringing the outside in. 

Wesley Kean Tells Indulge The Story Behind His Latest KoDA Design, Apizza Brooklyn

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Photo By: Nick Garcia

Award-winning architecture and design firm, KoDA, practices design with ambition for its clients  and optimism for the world. Led by Principal and Founder Wesley Kean, he uses analysis and research to inform create the design of distinctive buildings, landscapes, interiors and experiences.

One of KoDA’s recent projects, the new Apizza Brooklyn restaurant in Coral Gables, is perhaps a perfect illustration of the firm’s research-based design process. Kean and his associates took on quite a bit of in-depth analysis, diving deep into the company’s brand and figuring out how the firm could communicate that vision through spatial configurations, materials and menu design. KoDA even read the restaurant’s online reviews.

“This process allowed us to distill the brand down to its essence, and build and evolve it back into the space,” Kean said.

Their findings led them straight to a familiar icon.

“The brand is very tied to New York, so we spent a lot of time evaluating the city,” Kean said. “The instinct is to jump to subway tile or brick, but we took a step back and asked ourselves, ‘What’s truly synonymous with New York?’ And we just knew we had to go with a scaffolding concept.”

To read more on Kean and his process of design, visit INDULGE Miami.

Choeff Levy Fischman’s Prairie Avenue Residence Featured in Modern Luxury Miami

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Award-winning architects at Choeff Levy Fischman teamed up with developer, Mathieu Massa and the interior design professionals at Dunagan & Diverio Design Group to culminate the perfect Tropical Modern Miami Beach residence.

The home showcases CLF’s signature indoor-outdoor living style, with expansive glass sliding doors, and exotic stone flooring to ensure a seamless flow between the interior and exterior. The interiors combine a palette of grays, tans and taupe boasting European custom Oak shelving, natural gray Capri stone floors, and a unique limestone fireplace.

Offering 6,300-square-feet of living space with five bedrooms and six and a half baths, the waterfront home sits of 65-feet of water frontage and allows for 180-degree waterfront views. Outdoors, an outdoor kitchen and a large swimming pool create the perfect Miami-style entertaining space.

The turn-key residence is currently listed for $7.95 million via Julian Johnston of MIA Waterfront. To view more images of the residence, visit the home’s listing.

Rap Star Lil Wayne Buys Choeff Levy Fischman Design for $17M

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One of Choeff Levy Fischman’s Tropical Modern luxury homes has caught the attention of another celebrity seeking an indoor-outdoor lifestyle. Lil Wayne recently purchased an Allison Island residence for almost $17 million. The Grammy Award-winning rapper is privy to Choeff Levy Fischman’s designs. His previous waterfront residence on La Gorce Circle was also designed by the award-winning architects.

The rapper’s new home sits right in the middle of the waterway leading to Biscayne Bay and the ocean. It features an atrium, living walls, and numerous water features.

The entire design for this home is to make it feel as though it is floating on water.
It begins with the pond that feels like a moat you have to cross to get to the front door—across slab steps that appear to rise up from the blue depths—and once indoors the moveable walls make it hard to tell where the outdoors starts and the indoors end. The seven-bedroom, ten-bathroom house, which sold for $16.75 million, is 10,472 square feet with 110 feet of water frontage. The picture above is a close up of the backyard to orient you into the ways of the floating concept the architect was going for.

To read more details on the home and see photos, read Forbes most recent feature here.

Wix and Stantec Redefine the Office

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When you think of an office, grass-colored carpets with cabanas, a pool table and hanging lounge chairs probably don’t come to mind, unless you work at Wix. Wix’s new office in Miami Beach redefines the office setting. Although they do a lot of web building, they left the architecture and design of the office to Stantec in Miami. Stantec kept in mind what Wix stands for and their innovative work ethic. They created a bright and energetic space with a lot of natural light, colors, and unique features, which were recently shared on Forbes.

Web building and design disruptor Wix has made it simple and fun for people of all skill levels to drag-and-drop design a business website. The platform is praised for its intuitive UX, attractive designs and supportive community. I took a tour through Wix’s Miami office, and chatted with Shelly Cohen, head of WixStores Business Development, and with U.S. Operations Manager Dax Pedraza about how Wix’s physical work spaces reflect the company’s open-minded and collaborative philosophy.

Regardless of what continent or country the office may be, “Wix has an open-minded environment and a unique vibe—and it starts with the office design,” says Cohen.

The interior design of every Wix office is characterized by bright colors, clear windows and proximity to the beach. In Miami, the office is located within footsteps of the Lincoln Road pedestrian thoroughfare, not to mention many famous restaurants and nightspots. That being said, the office still feels like a workplace—distant from the chaotic noise and odors of Miami Beach.

Designed by architecture firm Stantec, the Wix Miami office is an aesthetic treat from the minute the elevator opens into reception. The Wix sign is stenciled over a green wall, so the three letters are actually green moss. Immediately inside reception, three grownup-sized swings, with fake roses intertwined, beckon guests to come and kick their feet up.

To see more of this unique office space, visit Forbes.

Stantec’s Design Expert, Jon Cardello, In INDULGE Miami Magazine

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From Miami’s urban core to the shoreline, Stantec’s Jon Cardello has helped reshape the South Florida skyline with many high-profile development projects. Drawing from over 20 years of planning and design expertise, Jon organizes building forms, building uses, and sustainable design techniques to create dynamic, multi-faceted spaces, which promote enjoyment, wellness, and productivity.

Jon Cardello develops the overall corporate strategy, business development and marketing of Stantec’s growing commercial sector practice in South Florida and throughout the U.S. Cardello’s planning and design expertise in high-profile residential, mixed-use, hospitality and workspace project spans more than 20 years. Projects include Solitair Brickell, Luma at Miami World Center, Eve at the District, Midtown 29, Midtown 8, The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Miami Beach and Atelier in Dallas. Cardello and his team have also helped to reshape the famed Collins Avenue in Miami Beach with the restoration of seven historic Art Deco hotels.

Check out the article to read his interview with INDULGE Magazine.

 

CORE Design + Build Brings Luxury Modern Architecture to the Mid-Atlantic

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Miami-based architecture firm, Choeff Levy Fischman, is taking its talents to the Mid-Atlantic with the collaboration of a new partnership with Maryland-based builder, Aaron Feivelson. The new venture, known as CORE Design + Build combines Choeff Levy Fischman’s award-winning, tailored environmental designs with Feivelson’s premier experiential home building services.

If Greater Baltimore is going to attract big money talent, the region needs to deliver on the kind of lifestyle many of those individuals look for.

For Aaron Feivelson, that lifestyle begins quite literally at home.

Feivelson has launched a new company in partnership with a Miami architecture firm to bring a new, modern style of high-end home design to the mid-Atlantic.

While the Baltimore area does have its share of luxury mansions and homes, they are overwhelmingly in the traditional style, Feivelson said. And there aren’t many examples of good modern design in the area, he said.

The firm, CORE Design + Build, specializes in an architectural style known as environmental modern, a sleek look focused on natural materials, sharp lines and open spaces. This type of home is made for a more forward-thinking client, one that is looking not only for a place to live, but a place that also serves as a work of art.

CORE is a collaboration between Feivelson, who is also president of homebuilding firm Sunfire Homes in Stevenson, and Ralph Choeff, founding principal of Choeff Levy Fischman Architecture + Design in Miami. The idea for environmental modern stems from the tropical modern style, which Choeff is well-known for.

To read the full story, visit the Baltimore Business Journal.

Construction at SoLē Mia Picks Up

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Construction is rapidly picking up at SoLē Mia – a community that will rise at 15045 Biscayne Boulevard. As the largest project in North Miami’s history, SoLē Mia is set to become South Florida’s next iconic neighborhood blending the serenity of open spaces with the vibrancy of an urban center.

Construction on the site went vertical at the end of 2017 with SoLē Mia’s first two residential towers and the Warren Henry Automobile Dealership consisting of Land Rover, Jaguar and Infiniti. The site’s Costco is quickly moving along and will be a tenant of The Shops at SoLē Mia. The development will reshape the North Miami landscape and transform the area into an exciting destination for guests and residents. When completed, SoLē Mia Miami will feature 4,390 residences, approximately 500,000 square feet of lifestyle shopping, emerald green community parks, chef-driven restaurants, entertainment venues and office spaces.

With construction on the SoLē Mia site pushing forward, SoLē Mia’s Local Preference Office is offering City of North Miami residents short- and long-term job opportunities in various construction trades.

How Living Green Walls Improve a Space

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Living green walls, vertical gardens and biophilic designs offer all the benefits of nature inside a space that not only functions as living art but also improves our well-being.

Architecture and design firm Stantec recently completed the interior design of Wix’s new office and technical center located in Miami Beach. The 24,000 square foot office features a living wall made of green moss that displays the Wix logo while enhancing workers’ lives through a connection with nature. The indoor green wall increases the oxygen level throughout the office, reduces stress and enhances creativity and clarity of thought.

A tropical modern home, designed by Choeff Levy Fischman Architecture + Design, blurs the line between interior and exterior. The house, located on Allison Island, opens out onto an atrium with two 24-foot living walls. The living walls not only bring life to the modern architecture, but they also improve the house’s thermal insulation by adding a protective layer of plants.

Patrick Blanc, a French botanist and scientist, created the living wall at Juvia restaurant in South Beach, as well as the gardens at the Pérez Art Museum. Juvia’s wall not only regulates the rate of humidity outdoors, but it also cools the air. As the human footprint expands, these qualities are important. Unlike a green wall, which faces in one direction, Blanc used different types of plants on the hanging columns to create the vertical garden at Pérez Art Museum. The vertical garden restores the habitats of countless species while providing a space-efficient way of incorporating greenery into a building’s exterior design.

17 West Mixed-Use Development in Miami Beach Tops Off

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Architecture and design firm Stantec, Grycon, Turnberry Associates and Elion Partners celebrated the topping off of the five-story 17 West mixed-use development, which includes residences and Miami’s second Trader Joe’s grocery store. Located on 17th Street between Alton Road and West Avenue in Miami Beach, the 185,388 square foot project will include 23 residential units, a rooftop pool deck with a gym, ground level commercial space and a public garage with 193 parking spaces. The residential units range from one bedroom to three bedrooms. The project is scheduled for completion in January 2019.