The MorrisMiami Beach, Florida

The Morris is a visionary 24-unit mid-rise rental apartment building in Miami Beach’s urban core. The project seamlessly blends mid-century influences with contemporary living in the heart of the Palm View Historic District. Adapting to the surrounding environment and historical context, The Morris proposes a U-shape building massing that reinforces the continuous street line on 17th Street while being porous towards the residential neighborhood in the back. Strong continuous horizontal lines determined by the exterior balconies, planters, and trellises are facade-defining features, along with bronze-colored vertical railing, screens, and window mullions.

The Morris incorporates lush landscaping, gardens, and seating areas to provide additional privacy and buffering toward the neighboring properties. The building’s lobby fronts the main road, 17th Street; parking is concealed behind an active liner of uses. The design intends to create a welcoming ground floor environment for all residents that pedestrians, cars, or bicycles can easily access.

The units range from studios to 2 bedrooms, each with exterior balconies. Each unit is designed with ample natural light in mind, incorporating verdant vegetation to support biophilia. Each 4th-floor unit has private roof terraces connected. The project includes sea-level rise, sustainability, and resiliency criteria such as passive cooling, trellises and overhangs, resilient landscape, ground floor raised above flood elevation, and minimizing heat island effect.