Townhouses in Miami:  Case Studies

Think of any large US city and its most-beloved neighborhood, chances are that neighborhood consists of townhouses, either in their original residential use or adapted to include commercial -- Back Bay, West Village, Rittenhouse Square, Georgetown, French Quarter, etc. Miami lacks a townhouse district, but a few developers and architects have created stunning examples -- Aqua, Almeria Row, and Old Spanish Village-- and during this discussion they will share their insights into the promise and pitfalls of townhouse design and development. Gretenstein and Menoyo provide a developer's perspective on townhouses as a product that could be bubble-resistant but is unfamiliar to lenders and buyers, and Plater-Zyberk, Victoria, and Hernandez provide an architect's perspective on townhouses as deceptively complex products of creativity, context, and efficiency.

This event was organized by the Miami Young Leaders with support from Urban Land Institute: Southeast Florida/Caribbean (seflorida.uli.org)

Event Panel:
Moderators:
Andrew W. Frey, Associate, Land Use Group, Akerman Senterfitt
Frank Martinez, Professor, UM School of Architecture

Panelists:
Steven Gretenstein, Chief Operating Officer, Dacra, developer of Aqua
Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Principal, Duany Plater-Zyberk Architechts, & Dean, UM School of Architecture, architect of Aqua
Fernando Menoyo, Partner, Coral Gables Rentals, developer of Almeria Row
Teofilo Victoria, Principal, DLGV Architects, architect of Almeria Row
Jorge L. Hernandez, President, JLH Architect & Professor of Architecture, UM, architect of Old Spanish Village
Alexander Gorlin, architect and author of "Creating the New American Townhouse"