Designed by late, internationally renowned architect Zaha Hadid, Hon. FAIA, One Thousand Museum in Miami—a 62-story tower with 83 half- and full-floor residences—marks the late Pritzker Prize winner’s first and final residential skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere. True to Hadid's signature architectural style, the condo tower sports a curvaceous exoskeleton that reached its final vertical height of 709 feet last month.
The project's developers—Louis Birdman, Gregg Covin, Gilberto Bomeny, and Kevin Venger—along with New York–based contractor Plaza Construction, have announced that the project is on track for early completion in late 2018 and have released new renderings of the building's amenity spaces, which reveal fresh architectural details and insight into Hadid’s vision.
“This is a project that will not only enhance Miami’s skyline but also redefine the standard of luxury for residential projects,” said Brad Meltzer, president of Plaza Construction, in a release.
“We don't shy away from challenging projects, and as such we were immediately interested when we saw the overall complexity of the job. To date, the project team has faced some major tests, but the project has remained on schedule and we’re looking forward to the successful completion,” Meltzer continued.
The new renderings showcase the project’s Sky Lounge as well as the double-height Aquatic Center with indoor pool and the Lifestyle Center and Spa, which overlook the tower’s Sun and Swim terrace. Additional amenities that have yet to be revealed include an on-premises, bank-quality vault; a multimedia theater; and a private dining room.
But perhaps the building's most unique asset is a private helipad, available on-demand for residents traveling to nearby destinations. It's currently the only planned helipad on a private residential skyscraper in Florida.
Interior construction, which is also being designed by the firm Hadid founded, Zaha Hadid Architects, is under way for the amenity spaces. Finishes in the high-end units' interiors include kitchens and closets by Poliform, appliances by Gagganeau and Sub-Zero, LED lighting by Apure, and home automation by Crestron. The developers recently unveiled a fully finished model residence, outfitted by Brazilian furnishings company Artefacto, as a preview of what’s to come.
“Plaza’s approach is that every project is a series of challenges waiting to be overcome, and this was certainly true in the case of One Thousand Museum. Zaha Hadid’s designs are most often associated with art museums or opera houses, but our task was to build a structure that people can live in—without sacrificing her vision," Meltzer tells MFE.
"To do this, we turned to lightweight glass-fiber–reinforced concrete (GFRC) to give the tower’s signature undulating exoskeleton a high-quality, smooth finish and provide expansive open spaces in the interior. One Thousand Museum is the first building, that we are aware of, in the world to use GFRC as permanent formwork, allowing us to create one-of-a-kind homes in the sky, no two of which are exactly alike,” he says.
The unique structural exoskeletal design also allows for maximized open spaces and spans between columns as expansive as 40 feet.
One Thousand Museum is being touted as one of Miami's—or the world’s, according to the developers—most challenging builds, documented in a new PBS series titled Impossible Builds, which aired on Feb. 7. Five-thousand pieces of lightweight GFRC manufactured in and imported from Dubai make up the project’s curved exoskeleton.
“We’re now one step closer to revealing Zaha Hadid’s forward-thinking design,” says Louis Birdman, one of the co-developers on the project. “Even in its current state, the building already stands out as the most iconic architectural work on Miami’s skyline. We’re excited to have developed something so unique and special for [the city].”
The condo units, which range from 5,507 to 11,533 square feet, are priced from $5.6 million to $20.7 million.
Hadid was the first female recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004.
