It seems earlier plans for Thomas Heatherwick to do a residential tower next to the historic Versailles Hotel in the Faena District Miami Beach have come to naught, and instead he's being replaced by the guy that designed the Faena House at Foster + Partners, except that guy whose name is Brandon Haw is no longer at Foster + Partners but has created his own firm, called Leitersdorf Haw Architects. The results are... from what we see so far... Well, take a look after the jump. The 1940 Versailles tower will contain 22 residential units, while the new building, which is replacing a postwar addition, will contain an additional 45.
This says something about the guiding hand of a Master Architect like Norman Foster, even if Foster wasn't involved in the day-to-day on the Faena House project. The Haw tower appears lumpier, an agglomeration of residential units rather than a unified composition, and designed from the inside out, but not in a good way. Faena House is a Foster, while this most clearly is not. Oh, and gird your loins historic preservationists: the Haw tower is proposed to be 28 feet taller than the historic Versailles tower. Eek!
Oh, and Faena also wants to take down, and duplicate, the historic Atlantic Beach hotel across the street, which is in bad shape apparently. Along with the Versailles (and the Versailles addition) the Atlantic Beach was originally designed by Roy France.
· Faena District to add new 16-story luxury condo tower next to Versailles Hotel [The Next Miami]
· Roy France's Atlantic Beach could be completely demolished, rebuilt by Faena [The Next Miami]
· Faena District coverage [Curbed Miami]
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