Michael Klausmeier
The front elevation of Glass, an 18-story residential tower in M…
How do you make a building stand out in the craziness that is the Miami luxury condo market? Local architect Rene Gonzalez, AIA, decided to mimic the Impressionists; he’s “painting” his first condo tower to look like a column of light. “I wanted to erase the top portion of the building and give it a shimmering, reflective quality,” Gonzalez says. The 18-story, 200-foot-tall structure, known as Glass, will display an abstract pattern of lines, created through fritted glass on the units’ wraparound balconies.
Located in the coveted South of Fifth neighborhood, at the southernmost tip of Miami Beach, Glass is less of a typical condo tower and more like a series of luxury homes stacked on top of one another. There are 10 full-floor units (the penthouse unit is three floors), providing panoramic views of the bay and ocean through glass walls. Each floor is 3,600 square feet, with an additional 2,000 square feet of terrace. The building has a minimal column grid, with a core that is pushed to the western edge, allotting the most space to the ocean-facing side.
Developer David Martin of Terra Group also asked Gonzalez to design the building’s custom interiors, which have appropriately high-end finishes, including Calacatta marble for the kitchen and bathroom walls. Gonzalez, who was the architect of a nearby spec home that sold for a record-setting $47 million, clearly knows what these local luxury seekers want.
