Located within the Miami Beach Historic District, this project preserves the character of the original Art Deco Dexter Building built in 1936. Its dynamic streamline details are conserved, and its distinctive keyhole entry is recast as portals into a new understory garden for the residence. The new home lightly hovers above the historic façade and entry garden with a reflective underbelly that mirrors and dissolves into the landscape. The wing of the new home that cantilevers over the historic façade is made entirely of glass block, a material that was used in smaller doses in the Miami Beach Art Deco District and internationally in the Art Moderne movement in projects like Maison de Verre by Pierre Chareau.
Responding to Miami Beach’s vulnerability to sea-level rise and evolving flood elevation requirements, the residence is elevated, creating an open, breezy first level that becomes a lush tropical landscape of pools, gardens, and outdoor rooms. This resilient base is both an environmental strategy and provides multiple distinct sensory experiences. Among these experiences is a sunken outdoor living space surrounding an ancient kapok tree. The landscape material is meant to feel otherworldly, Amazonian, and yet familiarly tropical. The arrival is marked by a light portal — an abstracted echo of the historic keyhole entry — that transitions visitors from the historic façade into a procession of luminous open spaces surrounding a courtyard. A sequence of terraced volumes frame the original courtyard, ensuring daylight filters into the narrow site and maintaining the home’s historic spatial essence. The project provides flexible gathering options for both large and small groups as well as for private meditative retreat. For instance, the sunken conversation pit accommodates larger group gatherings, while the floating glass library offers secluded contemplation. All spaces gradually ascend into the main family living space that bridges over the courtyard and connects with the bedrooms of the home.
The resulting family home emerges as a composition of ethereal gardens interwoven with a restored historic Art Deco façade, while a series of glass-block–enclosed spaces hover lightly above it all. Elevated and resilient — engineered to meet rising seas and a changing climate — the home safeguards its legacy while projecting a clear, confident, and sustainable vision of the future.
