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Additional Information about Atlantis Condominium
Brickell Avenue
Last
effort to stop another Brickell high-rise is today
- By Marilyn Bowden
Residents
of a landmark Brickell Avenue condominium plan to appeal
to the Miami City Commission in a last-ditch attempt to
halt construction of a high-density rental apartment
building next door. Fans of the well-known Atlantis
condo building are among those opposing the Brickell Bay
Village Development, one of whose principals is Michael
Baumann. The lot was the site of a low-rise, 150-unit
rental community called Brickell Bay Village Apartments,
the same name proposed for the new project. The new
plans won approval from the commission in December and
called for a 421-unit rental building with 632 parking
spaces on a bay front lot at 2101-5 Brickell Ave. The
design has since been modified to 359 units with 510
parking spaces. The property is immediately to the south
of The Atlantis on Brickell, a condo designed by
Arquitectonica that enjoyed international exposure as a
permanent feature in the opening credit sequence for the
TV series Miami Vice. Residents of The Atlantis have
protested the Brickell Bay Village Apartment project
from its inception, claiming its bulk will block the
public's view of their well-known building and its
design is not in keeping with neighborhood standards.
Tucker Gibbs, attorney for the Atlantis condo residents,
said the appeal is based on a provision in the city's
major use special permit regulations that stipulates a
project must have no potentially adverse affect on the
surrounding neighborhood. The proposed building, he
said, "is not consistent with the planning fabric of
Brickell Avenue." Bryan Hoffman, an architectural
photographer and Atlantis resident, called it "a truly
significant building of the post-modern period," citing
its style, scale and subtle relationship to its
surroundings. Opposition to the Brickell Bay Village
project, he said, "is not only from city, community and
state. Several internationally recognized architects
have voiced their concern." "This monstrosity will
obliterate our building and the Bristol Tower," said
Jorge Diaz, one of the Brickell Atlantis residents
mounting the appeal. "We feel our building is an icon of
the city and is being disrespected." Residents of The
Bristol Tower Condo, which flanks the proposed
apartments to the north, joined a group of Atlantis
residents to oppose the development plan when it first
came before the city commission but dropped out after
developers modified the initial design....
It’s
happening at The Atlantis, 2025 Brickell Avenue, the
post-modernist building with the unusual hole in the
middle. Most often "etched in memory as the freeze frame
at the end of the opening sequence of Miami Vice," as
described by architecture critic Beth Dunlop, The
Atlantis has been seen the world over since its 1982
birth in a few hundred publications and by millions of
television viewers. Designed by Arquitectonica,
described as "a brash, young Miami firm" by Time
magazine at the time, The Atlantis not only made
history, it has come to represent a new significant era
in Brickell Avenue – and architectural – history. |
