Analyzing Apartment/Lofts in Miami

Posted on: June 7th, 2010 | 20 Comments

This is Day 139 of the Slow Home Project and we need you to join us in our quest to evaluate the design quality of houses in nine North American cities in nine months. This week we are reviewing the results of our work in Miami, as well as announcing a new Design Challenge.

It’s Monday and it is also our last week in Miami! This week we are analyzing the data from the Slow Home Project and today we are looking at the overall design quality of apartment/ loft projects. The group analyzed 270 apartment/ loft projects in Miami, but unfortunately the results were very disappointing. The apartment/ loft projects in Miami had the lowest score out of the four cities we have analyzed so far – the others being Toronto, Dallas and Denver.

Only 42% of the apartment/ loft projects in Miami met the minimum design threshold score or 13 out of 20 points on the Slow Home Test. That means that 58% of apartment/ loft projects in Miami have such serious design problems that they should really be avoided all together. Also, unlike other cities, not one single project scored higher than 17 out of 20. Most surprising still was the almost universal lack of environmental performance features integrated into the design of new apartment/ loft projects in Miami.

We would like to hear what you think about these results. Leave us a comment as to why you think that Miami has scored so poorly on the Slow Home Test in the apartment/ loft category. Tomorrow, we will continue out analysis of the data and we will be looking at townhouses in Miami.

Miami Design Challenge

For this weeks design exercise we have another “Design Challenge”. Click on the player below to watch John and Matthew review the floor plan of this badly designed, 1514 sq ft single family home from the Miami area. Your challenge is to re-work this floor plan. You have until 4pm Calgary time on Wednesday, June 9 to submit your plan by email to john@slowhomestudio.com – please don’t post your scheme to the site. We will be choosing the best plan and the winner will receive a book prize! Good luck and we look forward to seeing your submissions. We will be announcing the winners on Friday in a special episode!

Choosing The Best Apt/Loft in Miami (PDF)
Choosing The Best Apt/Loft in Miami (Existing)
Choosing The Best Apt/Loft in Miami (Demo)
Choosing The Best Apt/Loft in Miami (Full Symbol Library)

  • autobrad

    Interesting numbers out of Miami- the 1% is close to zero. I did a quick google survey of the fastest growing cities in the US and Miami is always way down on the list, if at all. So, it doesn’t look like rapid growth is contributing to the ‘fast’ homes. It doesn’t appear that the homes are just being slapped up to meet the demand and bcause of this there should be time for ‘slow’ design. Perhaps John identified the problem in the video post when he said that Miami is all about condos/townhomes and the walkability score. Perhaps the problem is that design gets pushed aside in favour of the real estate mantra, ‘location, location, location.’ As most of the townhomes scored fairly high for walkability maybe developers are just concerned with giving their clients the ability to be near shops and nature? Maybe the reason for the poor design is demographics. I wonder how many of the condos are sold to ‘Harold and Cathys’, retiring seniors or snowbirds? If this is the case maybe the developers have put location over design to be able to give the buyers access to commercial and geography interests? Perhaps older buyers care less about good design as poorer design is what they are use to? I wonder what the numbers would look like if we looked at Miami single family homes? It will be interesting to see what Vancouver condos scores as I think much of Vancouver is the same as Miami, ‘fast’ homes built for location.

  • Terri

    I missed the week on condos/lofts, but I did see the examples that John and Matthew analyzed. It looked like maybe the condos in Miami are built to look exciting from the street, but then when it comes to making each individual unit within the structure work efficiently, the odd curves or angles made it almost impossible to not have corresponding odd angles or wasted corners or other awkward design elements. Of course, I didn’t analyze any myself, so I may be off the mark here.

    The only other explanation I can think of for the high number of fast condos is that the general attitude must be such that environmental performance or good floorplans just don’t matter to the majority of the population. Is it because they believe that people aren’t going to spend that much time in their condos because they’ll be at the beach or golf course instead, so bad design isn’t going to be an issue? The developers build what is expected, so it seems what’s been expected in Miami is more about image (fast homes)and less about sustainability for long-term living (a slow home).

  • Cnick

    I think one of the reasons that Miami may have such a high number of fast homes is due to the demographics that are choosing Miami as a city to live in. A large percentage of the population may be baby boomers and retirees. This generation did not grow up with such a focus on sustainability and green-living that younger generations may have and do not put a lot of importance on environmentally sustainable projects and designs. Therefore, the developers are not incorporating energy-efficient and sustainable floor plans into their projects because there is simply not that much demand for them.

    The yuppies that are choosing Miami apartments are simply looking to get into the market and own their own apartment so they cannot be overly picky when choosing a plan due to real estate prices increasing and incomes remaining stagnant.

  • Tara

    Terri:
    I think you’re right on by saying that the building are designed for how they look on the outside rather than the quality of the individual units. With a city full of highrise condos, perhaps developers feel the need to create flashy. stand-out structures in order to sell units, and this is where they invest their efforts. On the websites I found, there was also a focus on finishings and high-end materials within the units so it seems like they are also designing for a more superficial market.

  • PeterB

    Miami is definately a be seen type area to live in apartments and condos. Its either a younger party crowd or an older retired crowd. I believe on the beaches it is the young party types that are looking at properties. As a young man in my 20′s and i will be the first to admit curb appeal plays a factor in the type of housing i consider for a second look or even a first look. Miami seems to be so caught up in trying to catch our attention that they have forgetten once they have us they need to keep us with their interior layout.

  • Athena

    I agree, I believe these apartments appeal to the younger, single crowd. Who want a good location close to downtown attractions and the beach. Therefore, they will throw more aesthetic appeals into the apartment (such as granite counter tops or giant walk in closets and huge jacuzzi tubs), but they don’t offer huge functionality. Many have awkward shapes due to keep the aesthetic appeal from outside of the building, but this creates hard to furnish spaces.

  • Allie G

    I have to agree with everyone. I think it’s a combination of low expectations, the demographics that live there, the desire to be better looking on the outside to stand out and that it’s all about location and not design. But even so, I agree with Brad… It’s pretty crazy considering there isn’t a population boom of any sort and there isn’t any rush.

  • D.Eng

    After seeing the statistics from the video, I was really surprised! But then I read Brad and Terri’s post and like everyone else, I agree too!
    Seems like apartments are made for location. I know the location mantra but how important is the design of the house if the location is AMAZING? I am assuming very little. Developers should be scolded for ignoring basic design principles for a quick dollar that can be made on location. And it is probably easier for developers to satisfy people’s location choices than designs.

  • Hilda

    Hey All!
    I agree with the general opinion, especially what’s been pointed out by autobrad. It’s almost as if the developers are thinking, “hey! we got the units at this walkable location, that’s all the attraction we need!” It seems almost like a sacrafice move too, a good location and forefit a good design because of it. Although it really surprised me how badly Miami did. One would think that being the city that seem to be really big on high rise development, more thought would be placed into its interal design.
    Cheers!

  • Bell604

    Its interesting that a city that is primarily focused around apartment complexes is so far behind in proper design qualities than other cities. When a city like Denver, that is primarily single detached can be ahead in proper design. Miami seems like it would be a great place for architects to demonstrate their ability to manipulate small spaces into magnificent living quarters. It could be that the city is just to expensive – I can’t recall the mean housing price – so it wouldn’t be as profitable for the developer. When it comes to housing, it always seems to come down to profits, and not just making profits… but maximizing them. So my guess is its just to expensive and time consuming to produce proper housing conditions within some areas. ‘If it aint broke, dont fix it’ seems to be the motto for most developers.

  • Dan M

    I also agree that this is largely a case of location over performance or design. Location is seen by the developers as their strongest seller, if they build it here, the masses will come, Design doesn’t seem to be too involved in things. The almighty dollar reigns, and location dictates price. A person wants to be close to things, but should be able to have a better designed living space, it shouldn’t have to be a compromise.

  • Grace Coulter

    I thought that Miami developers seemed to make sustainable design a very low priority. I am not sure whether this is due to lack of interest in the market or it was as John and Matthew repeatedly said and this information just wasn’t displayed on the websites.
    This made the units we looked at in Miami very disappointing and made it very difficult for any home to obtain a good score on the slow home test.

  • Andrew

    It is rather unfortunate that only 42% of townhomes in Miami met the minimum design threshold score, but this is not surprising since most of the homes I found scored a zero on both Location and Environmental Performance. Right off the bat the home misses out on 6 points, and from that there is little room for error when trying to achieve the minimum score. It is clear that these 2 categories are a common failure for suburban homes across Canada and the United states – the suburbs are often built quickly and in isolation from the rest of the city. Thus, sustainable features are ignored and the walkability of the surrounding area is generally poor.

  • frazer

    Part of the reason for the bad scores is that Miami apartments were not made for living in but instead are geared towards image and status. Terri’s comment that people in Miami might not be spending time in their apartments anyways(making a functional layout unecessary) is closer to the truth than we think. With a warm climate and a lot of leisure time, who is really concerned about indoor space? We might also question whether or not these units are even occupied year round. This leads to greater questions concerning the quality of peoples’ lives while in their residences. If there is no slow homes in miami, is there even a demand for them? Or do we simply subconsciously tolerate bad design and let it makes our lives miserable?

  • Kadoman

    I agree with Frazer. I think housing in Miami is more about image and status than anything else. I also think about the “snowbird” effect, and wonder how many people actually spend any real amount of time in the homes.

  • MarisaM

    The survey results are pretty accurate while speaking loads about Miami as a city. Most of the apartments we looked at were in the downtown area so I was hoping there would be more attention paid to the environmental performance. Although the ideas behind Miami city doesn’t surprise me there is no focus on the environment in the design of their buildings. I would have thought in the apartment category there would have been a higher percentage of slower homes, since the space are more concise. But I guess you don’t always get what you pay.

  • JessicaD

    I know very little about Miami, and when the slow home results came in I was pretty surprised. I guess I had an idea about Miami as being a very trendy, progressive community, but perhaps as many people have observed its more about the image than anything else. The poor environmental performance and bad design scores demonstrate that appearances are far more important to this community than functionality or efficiency, which is really too bad because the location and site indicators create an opportunity for Miami to score higher than other cities.

  • Hawerchuk#10

    To me the numbers would surprise some if you were not immersed into the slow home philosophy. As the opener states “too many people live in poorly designed homes…”
    The designs are poor and the numbers provide that evidence for a undeniable conviction of horrific floor plans. I agree with the majority of posts about the low or lack of scoring in the two categories of environmental performance and location as the downfall of the designs.

  • Neogi

    Considering it’s Miami, the results make sense, more people in Miami are inclined to spend time outdoors than inside. Additionally, we should consider the demographic that Miami caters to, is mostly elderly couples and young professionals, thus the apartment/ lofts housing is considerably popular over single family and townhomes. However the lofts and apartments are all about the exterior esthetics, at the cost of the interior living space. Miami is such a trendy and over glamorized city that many of the housing flaws have been continued to be ignored. It is surprising that single family homes scored so poorly when money and mansions go hand in hand when you think about Miami. So even with all of the wealth surrounding Miami one would suspect that better designed houses should be natural.

  • DJS

    It’s amazing to see that the poor results on the slowhometest are evident in such a large sample size. Really shows that there needs to be a change, because all these homes are new developments.