Miami’s Courthouse Tower renovation gets new renderings

Wynwood-based architecture and interior design studio MKDA has been appointed to lead the $5 million-plus renovation of Courthouse Tower in downtown Miami.

Located at 44 West Flagler Street, the building was acquired by New York-based real estate firm Brickman for $27.5 million in March 2016. The mixed-use tower is 162,500 square feet, comprised of 25 floors of office space and ground-level retail.

MDKA was also selected to lead a minimal renovation of the building at 200 Southeast First Street (acquired a couple weeks before Courthouse Tower by Brickman for $34 million), as that building underwent a multimillion dollar improvement a few years ago. The two towers are blocks apart.

Courthouse Tower’s renovation entails upgrades to the façade, signage, lobby, amenity spaces, elevator lobbies and corridors. Both buildings will feature modern architecture and New York-inspired spec suites.

Specifics of the Courthouse Tower renovation are provided below, followed by some renderings.

In order to elevate the building’s stature on West Flagler Street, MKDA first sought to accentuate the building’s height with a sleek outer skin made of black vertical metal screen glazing. The design team added contrast with a stark white porcelain frame around the entrance where the outer elements are carried seamlessly indoors in a true marriage of inner and outer space.

Illustrations of this concept include a beautiful entrance canopy that continues into the lobby as a ceiling; a recessed signage wall at the exterior that wraps into the lobby to create the interior signage wall; and the sidewall of an exterior landscape planter that cuts into the entrance creating a lobby bench. The lobby is a clean monochromatic white box with white polished floors and walls and ceilings that feature custom perforated backlit metal embodying the art of pointillism, a technique in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image.