Project Eleven Ten Riverfront Residences

Type Luxury Condominium

Program 21 residences: two street-facing townhomes, twelve single-level one- and two-bedroom units, and seven two-level lofts with roof terraces
Location 1100 NW N River Drive, Spring Garden

Status Design Study

Visualizations Azeez Bakare Studios

Land Use Steven J. Wernick, Esq. AICP

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A five-story riverfront building in Spring Garden. Its rounded forms are inspired by a neighbor’s stacked crab pots, its garden terraces carry the neighborhood’s tree canopy to the roof, and its base is built of local Oolite stone.

When the design began, a crab fisherman a few properties west was building, mending, and launching his crab pots from his own dock. The massing takes its cue from his stacked pots: a cluster of rounded volumes of varying heights, their corners softened as if weathered by the daily tides. Curved balconies with glass rails wrap the corners, and the upper floors step back to form terraces.

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Spring Garden’s tree canopy is so dense that from the sidewalk or a backyard you can rarely see more than a couple of properties away, and that foliage naturally reduces the area’s heat island effect. The design carries the canopy upward. Native landscaping wraps the base, planters line the balconies, and palm-filled garden terraces crown the building’s volumes beneath louvered shade canopies. From the river and the street, the rooftop gardens extend the green of the surrounding trees.

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The building is a three-dimensional framework of varied unit types. Two-story townhomes face the street at ground level, one- and two-bedroom units occupy single floors above, and two-level lofts open onto their own roof terraces. The range of sizes and layouts is meant to house a diverse group of residents and help the building integrate into Spring Garden as part of the neighborhood.

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At the time of the design, the Riverwalk through Spring Garden was designated along the sidewalk of North River Drive, and the Residences at Riverwalk next door had no public Riverwalk of its own. Across the river, Mast Capital had completed its portion of the Riverwalk along with a large green space, and [Riverline Phases 2 and 3] and the Naeem Khan Fashion Studio and School were planned nearby. A public Riverwalk on this site would connect 1160 NW N River Drive to Greenfield Garden Park, strengthening the link between the two banks and giving neighbors a new path to the water.

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Spring Garden is bounded by the Dolphin Expressway (SR 836) to the north, the Seybold Canal (formerly Wagner Creek) and NW 8th Street Road to the east, the Miami River to the southwest, and West 12th Avenue (SR 933) to the west. Its interior is primarily single-family homes, while the properties along its edges are zoned for multi-story buildings, and many already stand. Allowing greater height and intensity along significant corridors and waterways is a common urban planning principle, and Miami 21 reflects both conditions with corresponding zoning. Taller buildings at the edge also buffer the neighborhood from vehicular and marine traffic noise.

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The design studies the property as a T5 building, matching the height of its riverfront neighbors, including the Residences at Riverwalk next door and the T5-O property at 1160 NW N River Drive. The T5 massing opens new view corridors through 49 feet of cumulative side setbacks, where T4 allows zero, and keeps the building congruent with the other properties bordering Spring Garden and lining the Miami River.

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Oolite columns, benches, walls, and berms appear throughout Spring Garden, where many homes use the stone for both its beauty and its protection from storm surge. The design brings local Oolite into the building’s base and landscape and pairs it with an elevated seawall and tiered layers of protection, adding to the neighborhood’s coastal resilience as the climate changes.

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“Spring Garden already knows how to live with heat and water, through its dense trees and its Oolite walls. Our job was to carry those lessons up the building and out to the river’s edge.”

— Aaron DeMayo, Associate AIA, AICP, WEDG, Founder and Principal, Future Vision Studios

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Visualizations by Azeez Bakare Studios