The Apex at Edgewater

Location: Lockhart, Florida

Program: Housing, Shops, and Plaza

This site resides in the center of the Lockhart overlay district, serving as the heart of Lockhart. The site is characterized by low-density single family housing and heavy industrial use as it is currently home to several warehouses and a steel mill. Once home to a thriving lumber, steel and crate production industry the heart will revive itself to once again serve as a central location for entrepreneurs and young apprentices to hone their skills and showcase up and coming businesses to their neighbors through avenues such as a food hall, a brewery, food trucks, shops, event spaces, a community center, and a community garden. The existing parcels are revitilized by community and commercial driven connections to encourage activity in the central point of Lockhart. Over 120 families have a home in the affordable housing apartment complex, densifying and raising housing on site and creating space for residents and the surrounding community to spend time and be active.

At the Apex on Edgewater design drivers such as diverse housing, housing density, wellness and active living, and community empowerment are prioritized throughout the complex. In a site with low-density, single family housing, a multi-family complex now resides on half of the footprint and provides housing for four times as many families, allowing additional space for amenities, programs, and the community to gather. Outside the apartments is a complex with a food hall, brewery, food trucks, courtyard, shops, and a dog bar and park. These are situated so that visitors are encouraged to walk around the complex and enjoy all there is to offer.

Food trucks gather around the courtyard where visitors can eat and peruse, with a permanent structure offered for indoor space, restroooms, and rotating vendors.

At the food hall, visitors are encouraged to visit each building and experience a new cuisine within its walls.

The community can enter the complex from the sidewalk, leading them straight into the shops and food hall, with the brewery and dog park close behind.

Celebrating Miami

Creating and Promoting Miami’s Art and Culture

Location: Miami, Florida

Program: Art and Cultural Center

The Miami Art and Cultural Center in Overtown, Miami is located at the entry to the Historic neighborhood, surrounded by multiple pedestrian heavy programs such as the theatre, garages and multiple train stations. These assets translate into architecture at the pedestrian level in a way that invites people in and through, creating interlocking spaces, intersections, and connections in the site for people to walk through rather than around. By identifying the relationships between interior and exterior spaces informed by the site, masses and paths are made. This becomes a space for community to gather and walk through, breaking the barrier between the street and the complex, therefore creating permeability and establishing links. Designing a permeable space that places pedestrians within the art will create and promote opportunities for Miami, allowing it to continue to grow as a design exhibition and event destination for designers and artists while fostering local work. A space is created that caters to and places a spotlight on Miami’s unique art and cultural scene by providing studio space as well as shops for local artist to work and sell their crafts, rotating spotlight exhibitions, and event space.