One Thousand Museum By Zaha Hadid Architects Reaches Its Full Height In Development

If you’ve found yourself visiting the downtown Miami area in the last year or so, you’ve noticed the striking One Thousand Museum development in the downtown area. Developers Louis Birdman, Gilberto Bomeny, Gregg Covin, Kevin Venger along with New York-based Plaza Construction celebrated One Thousand Museum reaching its full height with an elegant private event on the rooftop of the Frost Science Museum, located in the adjacent Museum Park, which offers a direct view of One Thousand Museum and the Downtown Miami skyline.

The 62-story tower with 83 half and full-floor residences marks the late Pritzker Prize winner’s first and final residential skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere. The iconic project is on track for an early completion in late 2018.

“We’re now one step closer to revealing Zaha Hadid’s forward-thinking design,” says Louis Birdman, one of the co-developers on the project. “Even in its current state, the building already stands out as the most iconic architectural work on Miami’s skyline. We’re excited to have developed something so unique and special for Miami.”

The latest renderings of One Thousand Museum show the project’s sky lounge as well as the double-height aquatic center with indoor pool along with the lifestyle center and spa, which overlooks the tower’s sun and swim terrace level. Additional amenities include a private bank-quality vault, multimedia theater and private dining room. The building will also offer a private helipad available for residents on-demand to take them to nearby destinations, which is currently the only planned helipad on a private residential skyscraper in all of Florida.

Interior construction has already started for the amenity spaces, which are also designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. Unit interiors include kitchens and closets by Poliform, appliances by Gagganeau and Sub-Zero, interior LED lighting by Apure and home automation by Crestron. The developers recently unveiled a fully finished model residence outfitted by Brazilian furnishing company, Artefacto, as a preview of what’s to come.

“This is a project that will not only enhance Miami’s skyline, but also redefine the standard of luxury for residential projects,” said Brad Meltzer, President of Plaza. “We do not shy away from challenging projects, as such we were immediately interested when we saw the overall complexity of the job. To date, the project team has faced some major tests, but the project has remained on schedule and we’re looking forward to the successful completion.”

Arguably one of the world’s most challenging builds, the project’s curved exoskeleton is comprised of 5,000 pieces of lightweight glass-fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC) manufactured in and imported from Dubai. This is the first skyscraper in the world to utilize GFRC as a permanent formwork in the construction of the tower’s structure. The unique structure allows for maximized open space and spans between columns as expansive as 40 feet. The methods of construction and the complexity of design was so challenging that the process of building One Thousand Museum was detailed in a documentary series titled “Impossible Builds,” that aired on PBS.