124 units of senior affordable housing located on historic Normandy Isles in Miami Beach. Steeped in the vernacular tradition of courtyard housing in Miami Beach, Vista Breeze offers 119 elderly affordable housing units within two sites located on the island of Normandy Shores within the North Beach area. Formally, the project is broken up into two sites where one site is known as “Vista,” a half-acre site, and the other “Breeze,” a three-quarter acre site. Each site is currently vacant and fronts South Shore Drive. Vista abuts a municipal golf course to the north and Breeze abuts the Normandy Waterway which connects to Biscayne Bay to the south.
The architecture reinterprets and amplifies a sense-of-place through massing, scale, and articulated material expression. Located within the larger Normandy Isles Historic District, Vista Breeze lies within a context of low and mid-rise multi-family structures that were built in the 1950s post war era in a style referred to as Miami Modern. The style is known for its “whimsy” where the use of pastel colors, breeze block, and smooth and rough textures are juxtaposed. Vista Breeze carries forward this tradition through a fresh modern approach to formal massing that creates a crenelated street front that steps the massing back reading like a sculptural form. The courtyards are scaled to proportions seen within other housing along the street. Stucco façade elements contain sparkle-grain that glitters within the sunlight.
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