Miami Innovation Tower

It has come to public knowledge that developer Michael Simkins intends to break ground on the Miami Innovation Tower by May 2016. It would represent 6.5 M sqft in the new Miami Innovation District. The project is to be followed by an office building and an apartment project.

It will be a key component of the Miami Innovation District. The goal of the area? To attract promising tech companies. The tower has a conducive role of enhancing the tech hub–to-become by giving required amenities to such aim. SHoP Architects and West 8 have joined in the project to comply with the promises of creating an environment exceeding any similar district in the world.

The development will focus on designing a whole neighborhood including managing walkability.

The Area Plan, over 10-acre, will be split the following way:

• 3,850,000 sqft of office space
• 2,400,000 sqft of residential space made of 300 sqft affordable micro units
• 250,000 sqft of retail
• 2,500 parking spaces

You will find a technology ecosystem focusing on synergies, office plates, indoor gathering spaces, a green-roof landscape and it will include cultural programming. On top, each tower connects to the other one, 200 ft high, as a “mixing cloud” that presents shared amenities such as work, day care and exhibition spaces.

Even the design will fit the promoted philosophy of innovation and discovery catalysis: a highly-transparent surface for an ethereal look, LEDS and video art, as well as sailboats’ graphics to celebrate Biscayne Bay.

Miami is betting on this new Innovation District as a way to cement the growth of the tech industry here. That would be Florida’s Silicon Valley with all the financial benefits and jobs that come along.

The Miami Innovation Tower plans on responding to several issues of the digital revolution: it aims at creating urban environments that prevent people from being isolated from each other, enhancing accidental encounters based on the notion of human connectedness.

The true innovation here will rely on creative proximity and civic-mindedness as the tower will drive sustainable growth and generate employment in the surroundings, including in Overtown. It is also supposed to draw about 1.2M visitors per year to Park West along with creating 15,000 jobs.