For more than two months, Cipriani Residences has held the title of Miami’s tallest building. The three-tower luxury design has risen in the Brickell neighborhood, its wraparound terraces and airy glass promising the feel of the Italian Riviera on Biscayne Bay, topping out at 950 feet this month.
But it won’t be the tallest for long. In the fall, the flashy Waldorf Astoria Hotel & Residences, designed like a stack of nine askew cubes, will soar past to its final height of 1,049 feet. It will be the city’s first supertall — a skyscraper above 984 feet. The nearby curvilinear 902-foot Okan Tower, which will be completed first, will also be able to claim a superlative as the tallest to open for use, until the Cipriani and Waldorf projects wrap up construction. In the coming years, more buildings aim to match the Waldorf’s height, including Dolce & Gabbana’s first foray into luxury homes and hotel rooms with a monumental matte black and ivory tower capped with gold.
Miami’s skyline is rapidly changing, with a downtown skyscraper boom that was set in motion a decade ago after the Federal Aviation Authority began approving projects set at a new maximum allowable height of 1,049 feet. But that’s not the only reason the city and its surrounding neighborhoods, long known as a lively metropolis of late nights and ocean views, have become a developer’s playground. Hospitality, automobile and fashion brands — and confusingly, even Frida Kahlo’s estate — are allvying to build luxurious branded condos and hotels in Miami’s low-tax, little-unionized and business-friendly environment…