Six-storey building will include retail, offices and two residential floors

Foster & Partners has unveiled designs for a six-storey mixed use building in Miami Beach that will feature shops, offices new homes and rooftop gardens.

Its proposals for The Alton, on Alton Road, were drawn up for luxury real-estate developer SHVO.

Fosters said the building’s massing responded to the cityscape, stepping down to the south and west, in acknowledgment of neighbouring low-rise buildings. Façades for its three office storeys are recessed to increase solar shading and boost balcony space.

A landscaped driveway at the rear of the building leads to an internal ramp to the carpark above. The ramp is suspended to free up the ground level, and wraps around a floor-to-sky oculus that brings natural light through the office levels into the public realm below.

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Source: Foster & Partners

Foster & Partners’ proposals for The Alton in Miami Beach

On the building’s rooftop a series of private gardens offer panoramic views of the city and Brickell Bay.

Foster & Partners head of studio David Summerfield said the proposals had learned from Florida’s vernacular architecture and incorporated natural light and passive shading techniques to create a dynamic urban environment.

“The building is designed with a strong structural rhythm that generates a shaded retail colonnade at street level,” he said. “The scheme is also extremely permeable, with pedestrian routes directly underneath the building, connecting West Avenue and Alton Road.”

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Source: Foster & Partners