Boom or Bust: Miami

OPPENheim Designing “Green” Mixed-Use Project with Energy-Efficient Exoskeleton

By Kelly Sheehan, Online News Editor

NOVEMBER 15, 2006 –

Miami — OPPENheim architecture + design and Nexus Development Group, both based locally, are planning COR, a $40-million, “green,” mixed-use development here, Chad Oppenheim, founder and principal of OPPENheim architecture + design, told MHN.

The 25-story tower will consist of 113 condominium units, 20,100 square feet of office space and 5,400 square feet of retail space, which will include a café and furniture store, Jessica Santanillo Barrera, project architect with OPPENheim for COR, told MHN. The project recently won unanimous approval from the city of Miami’s Urban Design Review Board. It is scheduled to break ground in eight months and should be completed in 2009.

“We’re trying to establish a new paradigm for energy-efficient and sustainable buildings,” Oppenheim said. “The building will produce its own energy using alternative technologies, and will employ a wide variety of cost-effective design strategies.”

COR will extract power from its environment by using wind turbines, photovoltaic panels and solar hot water generation. Oppenheim said that the building’s most defining feature—a 10-in., hyper-efficient exoskeleton—will provide structure as well as thermal mass for insulation, shading, enclosure for terraces, armatures for turbines, and a ground-floor loggias.

The industrial-inspired condominiums will be a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-story penthouse units. Oppenheim said buyers will have the option to combine residences. They will be priced from $400,000 to about $1 million. Units will feature Energy Star appliances, recycled glass tile flooring in bathrooms, terraces, Energy Star appliances and design-ready concrete floors. Hallways will be lined with bamboo—a resource that rapidly renews itself. Residents will have access to a fitness facility and a deck with pool.source: www.multi-housingnews.com