Wynwood Design and Review Committee - Regular Meeting

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Present Present Present Present

We live in poverty.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

no there are no requests for absent waivers no there are no online public comments and chair can we please close online public comments no we have no online public comments can we please close online public comments

Can we please turn on your mic?

Make sure your mic is turned on because they're telling me. Thank you.

Thank you.

Do we need a motion to close the public? No, we don't. All right. Public comment period is closed.

Thank you.

Thanks. The minutes approval for February 10th, 2026. Do I have a motion for the approval of those if there were no comments?

I'll move approval.

Thank you, Kathy. Second? Second. Don't be shy. Do I have a second to close the February 10th, 2026? Second.

Who was that? Was that you?

Thank you. I have to keep track of this. So when Ricky asked me next week what was done, I can defer to notes. Super. All for a motion for minutes approval, Feb 10.

Aye.

All righty. Sounds like it's unanimous. Wonderful. All righty, and with that, Andrea and Ricky, if we can tee up the first agenda item or resolution item.

Item number one, WDRC address 320 Northwest 26th Street, project name Apparatus, location NRD1 Wynwood, transit zone T50. This is an adaptive use. Pursuant to Miami 21 Appendix J, all newly constructed principal building facades along primary and secondary frontages shall A, include and maintain art treatment along a minimum of 25% of the ground floor facades. or 25% of the facade above the ground floor. And B, include a minimum of 70% art or glass treatment at the sidewalk level. Art or glass treatment shall be a design to be approved by the planning department director with the recommendation of the Wynwood Design Review Committee.

Thank you. My turn. Good morning, my name is Gabriel hand afar i'm the artistic director of apparatus pleasure to be here with you to introduce our project. On West 20s Northwest 26 street i'm going to tell you a little bit about our studio apparatus is a design studio and luxury brand creating sculptural lighting furniture and objects at the intersection of art craft and architecture. We have galleries in Los Angeles, New York, and London, and our presence has always been rooted in cities that shape contemporary creative dialogue. Opening a showroom in Wynwood feels like a natural evolution of this trajectory. Miami's growing influence as an international art and design destination combined with Wynwood's raw creativity and avant-garde spirit closely aligns with our ethos. we see a powerful opportunity to engage a global design literate clientele who values art, culture, and meaningful investment. Our showrooms are living environments rather than traditional retail spaces. In Wynwood, we envision a dynamic destination that both complements and elevates the neighborhood through regular client engagement and a program of highly regarded events. These gatherings bring together influential collectors, creatives, and industry leaders fostering connection, conversation, and cultural exchange. By activating the space thoughtfully and consistently, we are excited to bring our story to the Wynwood neighborhood. That's my introduction. I'd like to introduce Tommy, who is our head of interiors, and he would tell you more about what we're planning to do on the street level.

Great.

Did you say you're the founder of Apparatus? He's the founder. He's the guy who started it. Make sure we didn't skip that part. Thank you. I'm excited to be here. So I'm going to just take a second and spin a little tale for you because we like to talk. So the intent of this proposal is to present the design of the new apparatus showroom to the Windward Design Review Committee for successful permit recommendations in the city of Miami. Every apparatus project, whether it's an object or a space, begins with the imagining of a complete world. The process may draw from cultural or historical references, or simply seek to capture a distinct emotional experience. Few cities convey such a strong sense of identity and emotion for us as Miami, and we are inspired by the opportunity to contribute thoughtfully to its architectural and cultural future. The proposal will discuss an overview of the design approach for the Miami showroom, then finally our art narrative. All will reflect our creative vision while responding sensitively and respectfully to the city around us.

Can everyone here see the presentation?

No.

Okay. We had your cover page for a little bit. I'm wiggling the cord.

Classic. All right, the gentleman was helping me earlier. I have boards as well, but we can go through. So the architectural approach for Miami, as a new apparatus location, it's important that the showroom experience aligns with the expectations of our local and international clientele, while remaining true to our creative vision and demonstrating respect for the legacy of Miami-based architects and designers who have shaped the city's architectural identity. Our windward location allows us to realize our guiding principle of conceiving the showroom as a total work of art. The neighborhood's industrial and manufacturing origins have produced building typologies that, while rooted in utility, offer freedom for expressive spatial design. This supports the creation of a showroom environment that prioritizes experience and engagement. We are informed by the principles of Miami's new urbanist movements, and this is where I get a little nerdy, Particularly Duany-Plater-Zyberk, whose vision for mixed-use, culturally active neighborhoods is reflected in Wynwood's ongoing evolution. So Miami façade, architectural narrative. The façade is conceived as a contemporary interpretation of modernist symmetry, in which the spaces between doors and windows are articulated as evenly arrayed columns with a stucco finish. The surface adds a neutral yet expressive canvas, allowing for artistic intervention and color as dictated by apparatus' creative programming. The formal composition references early postmodern precedents such as the Babylon Towers and Khazif, particularly in the use of rhythm and surface articulation. So our facade, oh, oh, oh my God. It says it's connected to the screen, but I'll just keep going. As I said, the two showroom entrances is clad in black mosaic tile, set about five feet in to add articulation to the facade. What we're interested in is through our materiality of black-filled travertine, steel, black mosaic tile, and glass in this entrance that steps in is to really create surface articulation in the space. And then the portions of the facade are articulated in clad, black-filled travertine, fabricated in collaboration with Arca Stone and Wynwood. So we're working with Arca Stone very closely on the project. The material continues into the interior, forming the primary architectural shell of the SHARM and establishing material continuity between exterior and interior spaces. So black mosaic tile is also used to frame the windows and resolve the corners and upper edge of the facade. So the entire building is going to be framed in mosaic tile, so it's not just an exterior corner. The interior surfaces of the display vitrines are clad in matching travertine and framed with articulated mirror inside. Glass entry doors are fitted with custom solid brass poles designed by a manufacturer by apparatus, featuring leather insets. Modest brass signage bearing the apparatus name is set into the travertine panels above the display windows, completing the facade composition. This is a piece of hardware that we produce. It's solid brass. And most of our fixtures are made out of this. And for our front doors, it's about a 14-inch round version of this with inset hide leather. So it's your first experience of this piece of brass. So let me talk for a second about the art narrative for all of our showrooms. So the apparatus art narrative, every apparatus showroom contains original art, painting, illustration, sculpture, and relief, are all used to convey the feeling of the complete world we wish to have our clients inhabit. Each showroom has a specific art program which responds to both its individual creative vision and its location. We author artwork through artists whose medium reflects what is appropriate to our spaces and creative narrative. Apparatus itself is a collective of designers, illustrators, makers, sculptors, and painters that creates each piece from our catalog with a devotion to the rigor of small studio craftsmanship centering on the importance of the human hand. In the main presentation, you can see some of this. And then in the art narrative for Miami is developed by apparatus as a unique expression of our artistic drive, but in a public art realm specific to Wynwood, we submit an architectural theme, which engages a street at three levels and calls to mind the essential components of the city we are in. The formal modernist facade is proposed as a canvas for a primitive yet classical expression of the elements. the sun, figure, and architecture. Each abstracted component, the sun, the forced perspective floor grid, and figure engage at different heights for visibility and conceived at different depths as an artistic expression of infinite architecture. The sun above radiating over the building, the overscale classical figure backlit with a shadow reaching to the sidewalk, and finally the abstracted grid forcing perspective back beyond the facade. Painted in gold, deep over plumb with the horizon line at the center cutting across the building just below your viewing line. of the facade. And this also curves back, returns 10 feet back on the sides of the secondary facade. So specific deliverable points as considered from the WDRC guidelines. The art applied is not stagnant. It would be considered as changeable element in accordance with our own activation events and art collaborations with people in the area. The art applied is not of a recognizable commercial nature, but our own expression of creativity for Wynwood. Art is to be applied by hand. The process would not veer from the handmade ethos we employ in our own product fabrication. Our facade is materially and dimensionally articulated with black-filled travertine, black mosaic tile and glass. Applied art would add to the facade's dimensionality and articulation. The facade itself you're looking at is 40 feet wide by 16 feet tall. At the sidewalk viewable line height at 12 feet, we achieve 73% of coverage. The art and facade paint will be maintained by apparatus. We have a very high standard on how we maintain our galleries, so this would fit right in. Our landscaping, which you can see in the presentation, only consists of pavers and rocks in private areas. There is no public secondary facade landscaping to this building. Any new plantings will be in containers and we're keeping the existing tree, which we think is a native ficus. The windows themselves for articulation are four by six foot tall and the private path setback is five feet. So you can see how this articulates back next to the, this is the Goldman building, and pastis next to it, just for clarification. And then the rest in the deck are the project drawings, details, materials, landscape views, and interior renderings. Which I can't get up on the screen.

So quick question. The image you just showed on the lower one, the perspective from the street. Yes. And then the apparatus signature image there, which is quite nice with the sun and the figure. Is that, that's not shown below. I just want to be clear. Correct.

That's from when we were preparing the site studies for the package.

So on the easel is the application.

Correct, correct.

And what is the, how's the, how is that graphically presented? Is that paint? Is it tile? Is it metal rods?

It's paint. It's like the finish is a gilding. We do a lot of our own brass finishing in our studio, and this is going to be an extension of that. So it'll almost feel like a gilded finish, like a gold, like a textural gold finish. And then just, again, for articulation, which is a little hard to see, is these exposed corners are all set back black mosaic tile as well.

So is the whole facade mosaic tile?

No, the facade itself is a stucco. That's what we're indicating as the purple. That's the purple, correct? Correct, yep. And then the inset, the front door. Black mosaic tile.

That's what your board shows, right? Your material board shows the stucco?

Correct, and here... These are the travertine, the black mosaic tile, and the purple in conjunction.

I think it's great. Any comments or questions?

I think the design is great. The simplicity is great. But have you thought about this as Wynwood? And the reason why I asked if it was tile stucco, Because it's stucco, have you thought about how this building in the future might get spray painted or might get, because it is, it's stucco. A lot of the buildings have art. That's the reason. So has that been thought out? I mean, it looks great here, but.

Yes, in fact, it has. We were earlier approaching this facade in a much more articulated way, which actually would not really work for that. Do we do want to future proof it? And if it is stucco with the applied art on it, it does make it simpler to touch that up. Our tile that we're using is articulated in a way such it's not a surface that's on the stucco. The only proud surface is the stucco surface, which is repairable.

In the top corners of the building, are those video cameras or lights?

Those are video cameras, but we are also introducing lighting to that as well because we understand that it's important to light this at night as well.

I'm going to make a motion to approve with a couple comments and then also just some feedback. Great. I'll start with some feedback. I think most of the art in Wynwood is considered graffiti for the majority is what's proposed in here. And you guys are one of the first this year that propose art, which is looked at from the perspective of an architect or a designer. And so you could see that you've taken a lot of time to think about the color of the building. You know, this maroon color is I'm sure you guys sat down and went through different color codes and figures. Oh, yeah. Hundreds. And so it's intentional. And then there's pieces. It's a simple box, but there's pieces of architecture, how you frame the windows and the openings on the exterior. And this is probably a comment just because of the rendering, but the light that's coming out of your box is a very white colored light, right? And I don't know if that's something that you need in a design studio, but maybe thinking about how the light glows outside of this box at night is just some design feedback.

Yeah, yeah.

We spent a lot of time walking around Wynwood and the comment that came up just now about the cameras versus lighting. There's a lighting issue in Wynwood where You know, the building owners and the tenants have this sort of important contribution to how people walk around the neighborhood. And if you could think about lighting and the way people walk and interact with your building, I think it would be important. So that would be the, you know, approved with condition that you think about lighting. Okay.

I'm going to just, it's a shame I can't show this because it's in our presentation, but this is the architectural study with the lighting study on the interior. This is how that would present at night.

A nice 2,700.

It's the highest we ever go.

Okay, good, good, good, great. There it is. And lastly, the landscaping moments and when what are so important when you walk around, and I saw that you had this little moment where you have a little bit of landscape on the side of your building, which is not part of the streetscape, but if you could think about that as how it contributes, again, to the neighborhood, it would be nice. Got it, okay. So, approved.

Thank you.

Comments. With comments for consideration on lighting and how it affects.

So we have a motion with comments. Do we have a second?

Second.

Thank you, Heidi. Great comments. Thank you very much.

Lastly, I heard you mention that the art in the building might change, and so just double check with code on what you have to do when you make those changes.

Right.

Right.

All right. We have a motion and a second. All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Aye. That was a great presentation. You're approved, but just unrelated. It was a very thorough and very well thought out presentation. Can't wait to see your shop. Appreciate that.

Thank you.

See how cerebral it is. That's great. Great.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

WDRC item number two, minute track ID 18972, address 45 Northeast 27th Street, project name Amara, location NRD 1, Wynwood, transit zone T50. This is a signed permit. All non-painted building identification and business identification signs within NRD 1, 4, T5, T6, and D1 transit zones shall adhere to the Miami Zoning Code Article 10, Table 15 sign standards and Wynwood signage guidelines. Thank you.

Good morning Chair and members of the board. My name is Katia Caceres. I represent Signal Light, a licensed electrical and signage contractor based in Miami, South Florida. Today we're presenting the proposed monument identification sign for the Amara residential building located in Wynwood. Amara is located in Miami's vibrant art district, Wynwood. where residents are stepped away from renowned galleries, eclectic dining, and light music venues. Amara's building features thoughtfully designed interiors, created art experiences and resorts style amenities that foster creativity and community. Today, we are presenting the design for the Amara Monument sign, which has been carefully developed and designed to complement the architecture and character of the development while maintaining a clean and elegant presence within the streetscape. The sign has been designed using high quality materials, appropriate scale and solid illumination to ensure visibility while respecting the surrounding environment and the city's signage current guidelines. The proposal includes one single-sided illuminated monument sign intended strictly for building identification and wayfinding for residents, visitors, and deliveries, and not for advertising. The sign measures approximately eight feet wide by four feet high, with an overall height of about six feet, maintaining a low-profile pedestrian-scale presence appropriate for the streetscape. The sign face will be fabricated from coring steel with laced-circle lettering, displaying the logo of Amara Wynwood Miami, The structure of the cabinet will be constructed from powder coating aluminum, providing a durability and corrosion resistance suitable for Miami's weather. Illumination will be provided by warm white 3000K LED modules, producing a soft glow through the cut lettering while minimizing glare and light spills. The design was developed to complement the industrial and contemporary character of the Wynwood District while maintaining a southern architectural presence appropriate for a residential building. We appreciate the Board's time and consideration and we respectfully request approval of the proposed monument sign. Thank you and I'm happy to respond to any questions.

I'm sorry, I think part of it has to do with just the technology. But I'm not quite sure what is the sign, the actual sign you're referring to.

Okay, this is the proposed location of the sign. This is the building. It's a building approximately 300 linear feet. And you can see on the plans. This is the 27th Street, so the sign will be located on the southwest corner.

So if you could go back, unless you actually have the spot.

Yes.

Could you, well, that site plan is good. Yes. So where the letter A is, that's where it's proposed? Yes.

Yeah, the sign will be located in this, you see this legend, on the southwest of the property.

I got it.

Okay, this is the overall design of the sign, six feet high by eight feet wide. We are having a base of two feet. And the face of the sign will be cut out face with the logo of Amara.

Okay. Ooh, that's helpful, thanks.

And could you describe just the lettering? Is the lettering illuminated from behind, or is it just the sign that's illuminated?

Yes, it's going to be illuminated from behind.

The actual letters or the sign?

I mean, the face is cut out like Pierce effect. I'm going to place a back plate. And the LED modules are going to be around the structure just for the subtle illumination.

Is there a rendering of that in your package? I'm sorry? Is there a rendering of that in your package? Is what? Is there a rendering of that in your package? I mean, I can only see that one.

Yes, we have the... Okay, this is how the sign is going to be manufactured or fabricated. You can see an interior cabinet, and you can see around this cabinet, the LEDs are placed. The face, which is cutting steel, is going to be cut with, it's not exactly a laser, it's a water jet. So we're gonna place a back aluminum plate just for the halo illumination around the area of the logo.

Is it steel, cored in steel?

Cored in steel, just the face. The whole structure of the monument sign is gonna be aluminum with powder coated finish, but just the face is going to be cored in steel.

I'm curious, how does it tie back to the building, or is it just a separate design?

I'm sorry?

How does the signage, the cord and steel tie back to the actual building, or is it separate?

No, it will be part of the sign, yes. It's going to be anchored with these four, you know, these fasteners. Can you see in the design? Maybe I can show you this.

How does the aesthetics of 410 steel versus the architecture of the building? Correct, yes. How do they work together? Yeah. It seems to be an added element. Yeah.

I guess my question was, like, I was saying, how... It seems like this looks very different than what the signage for the building is, the materiality. Was that intentional, or?

It was a request of the cost of the owner, exactly, because the actual logo of Amara is blue, and we come out with a few designs. But for some reason, the owner wants to design using these specific materials. Can you go back to the building design? Yes, of course. I have another. Okay, this will be the light, the day view sign, and the night view.

And then relative to what he was referring to on the building itself? Sorry, I can't hear you. I was saying relative to what my colleague here was referring to, is there other signage on the building itself or this is the only sign?

No, this is, I mean, it's going to be eventually the owner wants to place some interior signage using the same material. But at the moment there is not.

But there'll be no other exterior signage?

No exterior signage because this is the only, this building goes to the south to the 27th Street. That's the only sign required. However, there are other signs that are going to be placed into the building, but not facing to the street. This is the only sign that will be facing to the street.

Would you go back to your, I think it's your first slide that shows the site plan and the two elevations.

That's it.

Okay. We do have physical plans as well.

Where is the residential entrance to this building?

The residential entrance, they have two. One along the very place where the sign will be located, which is the south elevation, and the other way is from the 28th Street. It's a corridor that they call Paseo. But there not gonna be another sign over the 27, 28, I mean.

This one kind of strikes me, and I don't take this as a criticism. It just feels a bit of an afterthought.

You mean the material?

Well, I think the material and the location, and I'm just one voice. But it strikes me as a developer, the location of the sign will be hidden a lot if you're coming Eastbound on 27th, it'll be difficult to see because of the neighboring property. And westbound on 27th, it's partially hidden by the corner of the building.

Yeah.

It appears to be. From a drawing point of view, it may not be.

Yeah, exactly. The sign has been designed as a single-face monument sign because next to the building, there is another property. There's another building. And there is an actual fence. Yeah. So that's the only...

Totally understand the reasons.

Available location that we have for that monument sign.

And hence my observation of afterthought. It just feels like based on the physical conditions, it might have wanted been designed into the building. And then I think the material is, it's a handsome material. That portent in and of itself is beautiful, but it just, it's a little bit out of the normal palette of the architecture here.

So I have two questions. Yes. I think one's for staff or possibly the applicant. Is there any example of this in Wynwood, of a floor-mounted sign?

There are monument signs. We have a list of the locations.

But those aren't in Wynwood.

They are not with this specific material, yes.

So does the Wynwood code allow for this?

I mean, the Miami 21 code, yes, allow the monument sign, but it doesn't say any specific about materials.

And then to go off of the chairman's comment, why wouldn't you put the sign where it says the art of living begins here? I'm sorry. Why wouldn't you put the sign for the building where you have a sign that says the art of living begins here? Because that's clearly where you're advertising.

There is not existing ID identification sign for this specific building. They don't have any sign at all.

Yeah, just to be clear, I think the member's comment is that the panel on the rendering that says the art of living begins here might be from a visibility point of view and an association of a sign with the project. better placed there, just as an observation.

That's a temporary banner. The sign that you see there, let me see, I can.

Right.

This is a temporary banner. That's a temporary banner that we might ask to the owner to remove it eventually.

Okay. Any other comments?

I think my comments are the corten steel does fit in Wynwood. It's a very rustic material. However, I don't see it fitting with this building and its application. I do agree the location is a little bit awkward. I mean, my comments would be to rethink design into something that fits more into the actual aesthetics of the existing building because it does look out of place.

Well, the owner is open to, you know, to accept other materials if required. Yes, we originally present a submitted design using aluminum construction with special powder coating matching the Pantone color of the brand. But he wanted to be, you know, a little bit more creative. So that's why we came up with the solution.

Okay. If there's no other comments, could we have a motion?

How about this?

Patricia, if I'm allowed to do this, may I pass the gavel so that I may make a motion? Okay. Do I need to appoint somebody? I'll pass the gavel to Heidi for the remainder of this. Sorry?

Not here.

Vice Chair's absent. Okay. I'm going to move that this not be approved. And the two, I'm going to summarize the comments in simplicity, I hope, which is difficult for a man of verbosity. I think the two prevailing comments are, number one, that the location of the sign feels awkward. It's not our job to say whether from a marketing and business point of view it'll work or not work, but it just feels awkward and semi-hidden. I would we would encourage you to explore other locations for it. Secondly, I think the material, albeit, although the material in and of itself is not a problem, its location, the use of it in Wynwood, and it's not similar to the balance of the palette of the building is a difficulty for us. Location and material of the actual signage would be the conditions of the reasons of the disapproval.

Do I have a second on that? Second. Second.

Thank you. All in support of the recommended disapproval? Aye. Aye. Anyone else? Are there any recommend, any votes that would be in favor of an approval? So are we all, I didn't hear all the comments, are we all in support of a disapproval?

Yes.

I believe it's all present have voted for the disapproval of it. Heidi has to say it.

All in favor?

All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed?

We'll see you again.

Is there any recommendations to pass it to the owner in terms of the sign?

Put the sign on the building.

To come up with another proposal.

Yeah, I think the Friendly advice would be revisit where the sign goes physically, and that may help inform you of what the material of the sign design should be.

All right. All right. Thank you so much.

And just to be clear, because when we do things in the negative, I just want to make sure, the A's for rejection and the A's was for acceptance, correct?

Excellent.

It was unanimous, the rejection.

Thank you for clarifying. Thank you.

WDRC item number 3, minute track ID 18973. Property address 25 Northeast 28th Street. Project name 25 Northeast 28th Street. Location, Wynwood, Edgewater, NRD 1. Transit zone T5, 8 stories. 9,728 square feet of office space, application type, ASPR requirement, all non-painted building identification and business identification signs within NRD1 for T5, T6, and D1 transit zones shall adhere to the Miami Zoning Code Article 10, Table 15 sign standards and Wynwood signage guidelines.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Amen.

Oh, you can do that. It's on extent for some reason.

Good afternoon.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Looking pretty good on our screens.

Or it was.

Thank you.

Sorry about that. Got it.

Are we ready to rock and roll now? Ready to go. Good morning board members. My name is Mark Coleman, Director of Development for Rylea Group, 1200 Brickell Avenue. We are the developers on this project and on behalf of the property owner, Oumelon and Wynwood LLC. Before we get started, I would just like to say I've had the pleasure and honor to sit where you guys have sat or sitting today for about nine and a half years as a member of the WDRC. So I can appreciate the importance of what you guys do and the time commitment involved. For that, I want to personally thank you guys. But to the matter at hand, What we'll be presenting to you this morning is a truly unique project. And I know every project wants to come up here, and every developer wants to think this is a unique project. But I do think this is, because there's a couple of different things here that we'll get into. This is a truly unique project. In addition to being an office building, a recording studio for one of Miami's most famous sons, renowned music artist Pitbull, is also probably the smallest site to ever come before this board. is 25 feet wide by 57 and a half feet deep. And I'd hazard to say that it's probably the smallest project that's come before any board in the city of Miami. And the fact that it is a seven-story office building on such a site makes it doubly unique. Because of the size, it's also out of the normal assumptions made in Miami's zoning code and the Florida building code. For example, It has required some unique creative solutions to meet certain strictures, such as requirements separation of fire exits on the ground floor. At only 25 feet wide, we put both exits at the build-to line. We will not meet the distance separation requirements, which is generally one-third of the footprint. This has been resolved by recessing the lobby exits some 15 feet in order to get the required separation. However, recessing the lobby has in turn made it difficult to address the 70 foot frontage requirement on the setback line. To resolve this in cooperation with staff, we've provided an artistic street screen at the build two line to meet the frontage standard. With all this, we think we have created a really cool and unique building, a gem in Wynwood. We have built on the pattern language established by our immediately adjacent building, our soon to start Mohawk. using the same brick and similar but distinct glazing and detailing to reflect that this is an office building, not residential. We also have another sister building just down the street, The Rider, which has started construction. And we pulled some detailing off of that too to sort of try to create a bit of a harmonious aspect as you go down the street. 27th Street, sorry, 28th Street is planted at 25 feet wide. With the added setbacks of our site on the north side, our sites on the north side and the south side, the project that was just in front of you, the Amara, actually runs onto 28th Street also. It'll now be 50 feet wide and will create a proper street. Before it was basically an alleyway. One final note I want before turning it over. We are asking for no waivers on this project. That in itself is probably pretty unique for a ground-up construction in Wynwood, and I would hazard the city in general. Typically, projects have two, three, four waivers, and I've seen them up to 10, 12, and even more. This is a no-waiver project, as of right. With that, I will turn it over to Javier Barrera, the principal of Deforma Studio, who is the extraordinary architect on all of our projects, but this one in particular, to make the design presentation to you. Thank you all.

Good morning, everybody. Thank you. So my name is Javier Barrera. I'm the principal of the Forba Studio, 5555 Fiscayne Boulevard, and I'm here today with my colleague, Valentina Vendramin. So we're excited today because this is a special and unique project in Wynwood. This is a very narrow, as you can see in the image, very narrow eight-story building where the space is start unfolding vertically as opposed to horizontally, and very reminiscent of dense urban environments like New York City, Tokyo, Mexico City. So this is a map showing our site. Our site lies right on 28th Street between Miami Avenue and the FEC on the east. Like Mark said, the lot measures 25 feet in width by 57 in depth. That small frontage creates a lot of challenges for a multi-story building, especially on the ground floor. Like Mark was saying, we need two means of egress. One of them has to go directly out to the street. Backflow preventers, areas for trash pickup service, and you also need your entrance into the lobby with a separation between the two means of egress. All that in 25 feet. This is the way we've created the ground floor. We have one stair that leads you out onto the street, one stair in the back of the property. Our elevator sits right in the middle. In order to maintain that distance between the two wings of egress, we pushed the lobby back and thus created like an entry loggia for the building. We placed our back flows off to the right, concealed behind some screening there. And our trash room is behind the stair in the third layer. On the front of the building, we've created a decorative screen in order to meet the, I think it's 70% building frontage at the Bill 2 line. And we'll see this later in the presentation. These are or typical floors in the building. On the left, you have the typical, which is a business space of about 650 square feet. Each floor will have a bathroom, a closet, and a small storage space. In some floors, it'll be an IT closet. In other floors, it'll just be storage. The uses will vary per floor. So we'll have a floor where we'll have a photo studio. Another floor will have a recording studio, offices, and also lounge and recreation spaces. On the right, we are showing the floor plan for the top level, the eighth floor, which will just be a lounge with an outdoor terrace right in the front of the building there. Here's a longitudinal section cutting across the building. Again, showing more or less where the spaces are. On the bottom, you see the entry loggia, the lobby, then second floor lounge, then photo studio, recording studio, office, office, game room, and the lounge on the top with the outdoor terrace as well. Here is the front facade. So almost a third of our frontage is being taken out by the emergency stairs, the fire stairs. So what we want to do is clad it in the reclaimed brick, the same brick we're using in the building next door, and basically use that facade as a canvas for art going all the way up the building. On the left side, we'll have mostly floor-to-ceiling glass, and this is to get as much light into the space as possible. We'll also have glass railings at all the balconies at every level. And at the bottom, you see the screen leading you into the entry for the building there. We feel that the building sits well within its context. It complements the neighboring building, but it also retains its own identity. It stands out on its own as well.

Just one question. I may have missed this earlier. What is the relationship between this and the building next door? There's no relationship. Not the same developer?

Same developer, same architect, but two separate buildings, two separate owners. One building has nothing to do with the other.

You designed the one next to it.

And just while we're interrupting you will try to do it all one time in the renderings over here is the brick next door the. Final solution or the lighter one below. Yeah, there's two options there, aren't there? There's a light one below.

I got it. Thanks.

Thanks.

And also, I want to point out that the art shown here, it's suggestive only. I think the idea is to find an art consultant to curate all the art for the building. Here is the same image, but with a different artwork. And here is the screen at the ground floor level. So this is a custom screen, and it's made of rebar and reclaimed brick, creating almost like a sense of deconstruction, not only in the material itself, but visually. As the bricks kind of come down the wall and they go into the entry, they start kind of fading away. The screen is fairly open so we can get light into the lobby and also visibility. We want to be able to see what's happening in the lobby and from the lobby to see what's happening in the street as well for security reasons. Here is a slide showing the materiality that we're going to be using in this project. So we have reclaimed brick veneer. We have powder-coated aluminum, clear glass storefront systems, architectural concrete accents, frameless glass railing systems, the perforated metals to conceal those backflows in the loggia, smooth stucco and also some decorative aluminum profiles throughout the building. And here is a perspective of the building with context. So we see the neighboring building Mohawk on the right and also in the back as well. And I think with this, we conclude our presentation and we open it up to comments or questions.

It's a cool job. Thanks. Nice.

Yes. Yeah.

Thoughts?

I just have a question. This is a totally commercial building. It's not residential?

No, it's not. Well, the one on the right is, but the building we're presenting today is business.

No, I really like how it abuts that other building and sort of squeezes right in there, that narrow. Breaking up that big mass on the right, it's a really clever solution.

Yeah, this is really an infill project. I mean, it's one of these small sites, and I think that's That's really how Wynwood was kind of created. And I think this is one of the few projects that we typically work with a 50 wide or bigger. This is the first time doing a 25.

So the side of what you mentioned earlier that the art that's shown on that rendering and on the rendering here is a placeholder graphics. Is that the same for the big flat side facade, that that's a placeholder? Yeah. What's the material behind that? Is that brick facade as well?

No, that might be stucco, it might be brick, but I think it'll more likely be stucco because we are going to have a mural in front of it. And eventually we're going to have another building block.

We're going to have a neighbor.

Yeah. That's going to happen sooner or later.

So I guess what we're looking at here and are wearing our WDRC hats is the placeholder for the graphics. Is there a signage element yet?

No.

Will there be or just not yet? If there is, it'll be under a separate permit. Okay. Mayor Mrakas, So thoughts motions i've got a couple little comments and suggestions, the can you hear me yeah but.

Mayor Mrakas, It was a little confusing at the beginning, you could see, for the board with the, this is really a small annex to a future project, and so I think you know, starting out by. making comments about what the future plans are. You know, we're here to review how the building is contextually to Wynwood. And so knowing the future plans are important. The other thing you mentioned clearly is that on the west facade, you've got an opportunity for art, which most likely will end up getting covered by a future building. So the most important facade that we need to consider for the art treatment should be the one that's not going to get covered, the south facade. And you guys are proposing something really beautiful with this articulated fence on the first floor. My comment would be, for approval, is that you guys consider really fine-tuning that design to a point where it becomes a special moment for the project and for people walking in there. And I would also ask you guys to consider the art moment on the south facade um you have this small strip identified as part of it but there could be opportunities on the bottom of the um potentially the bottom of these what are they called um balconies yeah yeah that you could potentially use besides that i i make a motion to approve this project

Yeah, I want to commend you in terms of the site that you had to work with. I think you did a lot. I mean, it's a small site. And I agree with my colleague's comments. I think it's a great use of space internally. So I bet it was a challenge. Piggybacking on Sian's comments, my only comment would be it's like a vertical, beautiful, slim building. And I would try to think how, I know you want to tie it together, but how this building, because it's so linear and skinny and it's an urban infill project, kind of stands out on its own. That would be my only suggestion. I think it's beautiful. It's a beautiful use of space. Thank you.

I have moved to second. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Unanimous. Thank you. Thank you so much. Nice job.

Great job.

People are excited when you make a presentation.

We got it right at the end.

Thank you. Omar, we didn't get your last comment on the previous project. Do you mind repeating it to us, please?

Absolutely. My last comment was in the facade in the front that it should be articulated. So it's a suggestion that it doesn't look like the building next to it. There's a little differentiation between the two facades.

Okay, thank you.

You're very welcome.

WDRC number four, minute track ID 18974, address 2217 Northwest Miami Court. Property name Arlo, midline wall sign, location Wynwood Edgewater, transit zone T680. for a wall sign. All non-painted building identification and business identification signs within NRD 1 for T5, T6, and D1 transit zones shall adhere to the Miami Zoning Code Article 10, Table 15 sign standards and Wynwood signage guidelines.

Thank you.

And while our return friend gets set up here, as we've done in the past, there's two applications here. There's 18974 followed by 75. One is the facade sign. The other is the blade. A blade sign. Yeah, that's correct. Suspended, whatever, perpendicular sign. Projecting sign. So I assume one presentation, and then we'll vote on the two. two buckets separately, but you can only make the, you can only have to make the pitch once. Okay, perfect.

So good morning, everyone. My name is Agustin Arias. I'm representing Module X Miami. Today I will be presenting two exterior tenant identification signs for Midline Nightclub located at 2217 Northwest Miami Court in Wynwood. Sorry. So I just want to go over the design for both signs, because it's very similar. So the design intention was approached not simply as a functional identification sign, but as an element that engaged with Sorry, with Wing Woon's identity as a creative district, but also reflecting the neighborhood's history, which was an industrial area. So let me go over the sign for the first location. So this is a wall sign. Go straight to that. So as you can see here, it's a wall sign. So this sign measures six feet wide by, I'm so sorry. Six feet wide by two feet height. So it's a total of 12 square feet. It's installed about nine feet from the ground. And as you can see here, I'll show you how it's built. So this is a layer sign. What we want to achieve here, it's a very industrial look. So you'll have a cutout Aluminum with a second surface acrylic. So the aluminum panel will have the cutout logo, and then behind it will go the acrylic, so the lichen goes through the acrylic. And then the first layer that you will see, it's a grid panel layer. So that will create like a shadow and it gives some dimension to the design so it's not just a graphic flat sign, it gives it some depth and dimension to the design and it gives this underground-ish style, which for the tenant that will have, which is a nightclub, would think it's very appropriate. And it goes along the lines of the industrial style of the neighborhood. So all electric components will be concealed behind the wall and in the sign. Here you can see all the mounting specifications. The light will be a 5,000 Kelvin light, so it's a little more on the white side, but it's still a neutral white color tone. I didn't get that. Oh, sorry. Yeah, that's it for the first location.

Why don't you go ahead and show us the blade signs?

Okay, perfect. So the second... LOCATION, IT'S VERY SIMILAR IN TERMS OF THE SIGN, BUT IT IS A BLADE SIGN. SO IT GOES ON THE WEST SIDE OF THE BUILDING AS THIS ONE, THE FIRST LOCATION, SORRY. SO YOU CAN SEE HERE THE LOCATION FOR THE FIRST SIGN THAT I JUST SHOWED YOU, THE WALL SIGN. The second location here, the blade projecting sign, this is more intended for pedestrians to see and recognize the nightclub. So you can see here both locations in place. They're very close to each other. And here's the second design. As I told you, the design approach is very similar. We have the same grid pattern on the first layer and then the second surface acrylic with the logo. And this time it's a pictogram. Same design for both sides of the blade sign. And as you can see here, all the detail of the layers of the same details for both sides. Same color tone, 5,000 Kelvin, and the design measures three feet wide by four feet tall, and will be installed 11 feet from the ground.

If you scroll up, do you have an elevation that shows both of them?

What was that, sorry?

Do you have an elevation of the loading dock that shows both? And if not, if you just go back to your first application. Just take a look at the. This one here? There it is, right there. Come, come, come, come, good. One more image down. Yeah, just hold up there. That'll kind of, that shows enough. Hold on that one. Comments, thoughts? It's kind of a tricky, as simple as it is, it's kind of a tricky signage application to look at because I think the signage works, notwithstanding other board members I'm not... singling that out. But what's interesting about it is all of the projects that we look at, we think about the building facade itself and should there be graphics, should there be this, should there be that? But the whole shtick here is the idea that it's a loading dock, like a secret speakeasy or something that's in. And so dressing it up defeats the purpose from a business point of view. It's an interesting thought. Do you tinker with it or do you let it be what it's meant to be? I like it.

I think it's a different sign than what we usually see. My only comment would be and I would approve it as is with one condition that they study the Kelvin of the light coming out of these two signs. You know, if it's 5,000 or if it's 4,000. Yeah, I think I saw there was a difference, but we'll align both 5,000. Yeah. Or just a study and, you know, a conversation with the owner. Like you mentioned, it looks like a speakeasy sign. And depending on how bright it is, maybe it's this secret moment, right? So how bright it is might be a conversation to have.

Yeah, we'll have that conversation. Thank you.

Second. All righty. Got a motion. Got a second. All in favor?

Aye. Aye. Well done. Aye. Thank you.

That is for application 18974. Sit tight. Same for the blade, application 18975. Do we have a motion? Thank you. Second?

Second.

Thanks. All in favor of approval?

Aye.

Aye. It's unanimous. I assume just through the building, does this space, I assume there's a fit out of a lounge or a bar inside. that has to go through. I'm looking at you, you're like, I don't know, I didn't sign it. Is there an approval through the building department on this?

For the interiors, yes. Unless they're touching anything on the facade, it will come back to us. But if it's all interior concealed, then it's... No, most of my thoughts are related to life safety.

There's just some... little guy in the back of my head saying, wow, you know, you got people queuing up at a fire exit and you got the fireman's control and all that. As long as there's a permit review session that goes unrelated to us.

Just to assuage your concern.

Thanks.

Part of the permitting process requires fire. And fire goes in and does a thorough review. Not only that, fire also requires what's called a life safety plan. No permit will be finalized without approval by fire of that life safety plan, which goes into all of that.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

But thank you. I need a good night's sleep.

Okay, thank you for your time, Anita. It was nice to see you again.

Yeah, it's good to see you.

Thank you. Nice to see you.

Hope we will more in the future.

WDRC item number six, minute track ID 18976. Property address 119 Northwest 29th Street. Project name, Frida Kahlo-Winwood Residences. Location, NRD 1 O San Juan. Transit zone T680 NRD 1 and T50 NRD 2. 143,653 square feet, eight stories, 244 residential units, 212 parking spaces. Application type, warrant waiver. Warrant pursuant to Article 6, Table 13 of Miami 21, micro-dwelling units. Warrant pursuant to Appendix J. Section 4, Table 3, additional shared parking beyond the first shared parking divider. Waiver pursuant to Appendix J, Section 52B2, to allow parking in mezzanine. Waiver pursuant to Appendix P, Section 5.2.4B, for parking in second layer on secondary frontage. Waiver pursuant to Appendix J, Section 4, Table 2 for 30% parking. Waiver pursuant to Appendix J, Section 4, Table 2 for 30% parking reduction. Waiver pursuant to Appendix J, Section 4, Table 2 for 30% reduction. Waiver pursuant to Appendix J, Section 4, Table 2 for 30% parking reduction. NRD office. Waiver pursuant P, Section 4, Table 2, for 30% parking reduction. Waiver pursuant Appendix P, Section 4, Table 2, for 30% parking reduction, R.D. 2, visitor. Waiver pursuant to Appendix P, Section 4, Table 2, for 30% parking reduction, R.D. office. Waiver pursuant to Article 7, Section 7.1.2.529, or 10% reduction in required open space.

Thank you.

Will there be any waivers?

Good morning, board members. Andres Rivero, office of 1450 Brickell Avenue, attorney for the applicant. And I'll start with the waiver question. But first let me introduce the team. There's a good reason for it, so I'll get to it in a moment. But just quickly, I'll introduce our team. Like I said, Andres, I'm joined by my colleague, Javier Avino from Bills and Sundberg. Eric Samuelson of Cube Three Architects is here, the architect of record. He'll be walking you through the design shortly. Chris Cabezas from Kahlo Landscape Architects will be here as well to answer any questions. And Adrian Hartman of Property Markets Group, the developer, is here as well. So we're very excited to present to you the Frida Kahlo Wynwood Residences project. I'll start because that was a long list of waivers. The reason for that is this is a split zone site. So we're actually split between T5 and T6 and between NRD1 and NRD2. So in my world of zoning law, this is extremely exciting to nobody else, but this is a very complicated zoning compliance piece. And so every use in every transect requires a different waiver. So your typical 30% parking waiver is becomes like seven waivers that poor Ricky had to read, right? And same thing with the open space waiver he mentioned, I'll clarify. The project as a whole complies with open space, but one side of it is a little under, one side is a little over, so that's why we had to ask for a waiver on the T6 piece. So with that out of the way, I'll get to the more fun stuff. We're very excited for this project. This is obviously an homage to an icon in Frida Kahlo, a feminist icon, an icon of Latin American and global art. And what better place than Wynwood to, you know, celebrate that with its art heritage and its, you know, many waves of Latin American culture and history. And as I was preparing for this, I came across a quote from the De Dato art blog in an article last year. on the impact that Frida Kahlo has had on street art in particular and how many street artists around the world have been inspired by her. And the quote is, Frida Kahlo is much more than a symbol of 20th century art. She's a living figure in the collective imagination, constantly reinterpreted through the language of the street. And I think that that really gets at the inspiration for the design of this project. So Eric is about to walk you through the project, and he'll point out the places where we're proposing murals. The most prominent is on the east facade, which is a reinterpretation of her iconic self-portrait. And then the other major piece of the Frida Kahlo-themed art is on the back side, or the north side, on 30th Street. the entire frontage is lined with a mural inspired by her artwork. So I will be here to answer any of the really exciting zoning questions, and I will turn it to Eric to walk you through the design.

One quick question that I have. You said that this is a reinterpretation. Is the Frida Kahlo name... attached to the Frida Kahlo Foundation in Mexico, or is it separate?

It is, yeah. So this is a partnership. We have a licensing agreement with the Frida Kahlo Corporation, which is the entity that's set up by her descendants to protect her work and legacy. So there is a master licensing agreement that we've partnered with them on.

Thank you.

Hello, everyone. My name is Eric Samuelson, Associate Principal at Cube 3, located at 111 Southwest 3rd Street. So I want to be kind of short and concise here. He kind of stole all my shine about, you know, what this building is and what we're trying to be and the motivation that we are doing with our design here. So the project, just to kind of give you a site location here, is located at the corner of... We have 30th Street, 29th Street, and then we have Northwest First Ave. And so the building at the corner is existing in two remain. It's a two-story building. So what we are proposing is a building that will cross the block with frontage on 29th and 30th Street. On 29th Street, it is going to be a 12-story portion coming up from that side. That will be where our main entrance is. We'll have commercial space there. And then we'll also have an entrance off of 30th Street with vehicular entries coming in off of that side.

And so, as you mentioned, we have mural space.

We have the big mural coming in over the existing building. That's kind of the prime hero photo for the project. We also have mural space along 30th Street, along the ground floor. But in addition to that, we don't just have blank canvas on this building. We are really trying to think about this building as a design and art within itself. So we're looking at a lot of curve. And along 29th Street, we have a colonnade and curves coming along the building. really bringing down to the pedestrian scale and providing energy along that ground floor. In addition to the artwork, we really wanted to use that design of the building to really accentuate the energy that we're trying to put into this.

Is the existing building part of the project?

Sorry, you're asking about the building on the corner?

Yeah, could you just point out the existing building?

Yeah, so this building right here is not part of the project. We do have an agreement with that owner to create a covenant in lieu to use some, because that's a commercial and office building. So we're using some of the excess density from that building. So it's one development site, but it's not being altered. It's not being touched.

Can I just ask just one thing? I'm sorry. Just to show on the rendering there, which is the T. NRD2 versus the NRD1?

It's the south side is the T6 NRD1, right facing 29th Street. And then the north side would be NRD2, and that's T5. So if you're looking at the renders, this frontage is all the NRD1 T6 piece. And then the back side down here is NRD2 slash T5. Yeah, at right. This is the reason for the two heights, right? T6 allows more height than T5.

So it splits.

The T6 is in NRD 1. NRD 1 is... Maybe I can show, here I'll show, I think we have an aerial kind of context. It's the north side of 29. Board member. Correct, correct, correct. Yeah, and this is the zoning map here, so you can kind of, I don't know how much it clarifies, but you do see the outline in red, and then the two zones.

Can you stay on that for a minute? So NRD1 and T6, is that what you said? Correct. And then the brownish areas, NRD2 and T5.

Correct.

I have a devilish question to ask, pardon my ignorance. Is the limit of the Wynwood, it was a question I had earlier, is the limit of the Wynwood WDRC zone, little z, is that 29th?

It's not 29th Street. It goes half a block to the inside. So our purview matches that Wynwood Beds and the NRD 1. It's all one same boundary for the whole NRD 1. So the moment it becomes NRD 2, that's where it starts.

Our purview is the 12-story part of the building. Yes. And there might be some... plinth level parking pool or whatever, but not facing south from 30th for the five-story.

Correct.

Okay.

That's right.

To your point of... of head scratching, it's just one more variable to add.

Correct, correct.

The good news is they're both in the state of Florida.

That's right, that's about as much as we can say. And to your point, technically it's only the south side that triggers review by this board. Obviously we accept comments on the whole project and this will be going to UDRB as well. Thank you.

Kind of figuring out how wide the field is.

Yes.

And for reference, Wynwood Plaza, the one that's built on 29th Street and First Avenue, Same thing. Half of it is NRD 2, the other half NRD 1. The whole project came in as one project to WDRC. Excellent.

Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks.

So I just have a question. I mean, I'm not trying to insinuate any judgment into the question. I'm just curious if the building is meant to pay homage to Frida Kahlo. the architecture is totally, doesn't seem to be consistent with the aesthetic of the period or her work or the context in which her work exists. So was there just a separate idea of what the building would be and then a separate idea of, like how do you feel that those two ideas are integrated into the architecture? Because you're giving it such a strong identity to Frida Kahlo and then the architecture says something totally else.

Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say we came up with a building and then added a brand at the end. You know, I think a lot of our ideas were curated from that. And this is really a modern look at that. You know, we weren't trying to create something from the 1930s or 1940s that was totally exact to her artwork at that time. But we were really trying to kind of create a modern look and try and use, you know, we have a landscape and a courtyard and the interiors that are within here. that we really try to curate to that. So while the exterior look may not be exact to what her artwork was, we were trying to basically reimagine that in more of a modern way.

If I were to extract some of the things that I see from what you submitted to us, it almost tries to celebrate women. Like the architectural portions are references to Zaha Hadid's building in downtown. so i mean the curves the maybe there's like a conversation about how the building is you know driven by you know famous women um but you know to her point there there's a total difference between the the art and so even the mural itself is not Contextual to her original design. It's like a modern interpretation of what she looks like today if she was a young woman today So there could be a conversation about that and if there that is the mural now nowadays We're like people that come up there like this is a placeholder, right? But if it's not a placeholder, you really it's not a placeholder So then maybe the conversation should be two things. Is the agreement that you have with the existing building going to limit the height restriction and that's going to be there permanently? Or is there an opportunity that eventually a building will go up and that will be covered is the first question.

Yeah, and it's a great question. And so, yes, the agreement that we have, the covenant in lieu with the existing building will preserve that building at that height, right? I mean, it can't be developed, in other words, into a condo tower that would block it.

So you'll get, even if, like, you know, the adjacent building against that gets developed, you'll still be able to see it from an angle. And so... If we talk about our board as an important board to talk about art, then maybe who is painting this thing? It's not Frida. Who is the artist and what is their theory and thesis about this piece of art? And then, secondly, if, you know, there are other art moments in this building that we would like to talk about. And thirdly, I would love to hear about if there's a paseo in this project or landscaping moment. I really want to dive into that.

Are you buying all the density from the corner?

All but a few units, yes. All but four units, I believe.

Can we please give her a mic? Could you speak into the mic, please? She's going to speak, please.

Sorry, I apologize.

Thank you.

Go ahead. Hi there, Chris Cabezas with Cali Design Studio. On this piece about Frida's inspiration, the design for the amenity level is based on her gardens and her Mexico residence. We studied the organic shapes, the curvilinear walkways, and we're really excited that we came up with a design that uses the inspiration of her personal property in Mexico. So you could see. That is the amenity level, and it's almost an art piece in itself.

Go ahead and just put that on an easel so we can see it.

I'll raise that for you.

Thank you.

So we studied her residence, the shapes, the feeling that you get going through her own personal garden. So this experience is, it offers a lot of opportunity as you meander through the spaces, just like her own personal garden to get into her world a little bit. So we're using that inspiration for this area and we're really excited to how it came out and I think the whole team was very happy with the overall design. Also some of the hardscape materials are taken from her own residence.

If you can hold on that. Somebody was skimming through pages in the presentation and there was a street level view showing what was underneath the arcade or Paseo. It was that view, but I thought I saw somebody skip by. I think it was this one here. It had the artwork underneath.

Oh, there you go. Yeah, so this is the 30th Street side. This is not on the 29th Street.

And just as a question, why the color and animation there but not on the 29th Street facade?

So we were kind of doing a combination of, you know, we have the artwork here. I'm just going to switch this to see both. So we have the artwork here on 29th Street kind of as a welcoming to the building. We know this building is remaining as is. And so that was kind of really the pop and the moment that we wanted to see on 29th Street. And then the ground floor here is all activated with commercial and lobby, like entry space for the building. And so then on 30th Street, we were trying to use kind of a different method where we wanted to create that mural along 30th Street because we didn't have that big pop on the side of the building like we did on 30th.

I'm not sure what I think of that, but just hold that question. A question for the landscape architect. Why not... continue the palm trees on the 29th side, which really what we've got jurisdiction over talking about today.

I do believe there's a code restriction on the type of trees and the... Well, it doesn't have to be palm trees, but why not landscaping on the 29th side?

I think we do have landscaping.

Yeah, let me, I'll pull up that side. But yeah, so part of it is that, again, coming back to the split zone, we have to adhere to the Wynwood streetscape plan on 29th. So I think that was part of the reason. This is the view from the front.

Okay, so the Wynwood design guidelines don't allow trees along the 29th?

Yeah, I mean, is this rendering accurate here with the? Yeah, I think we need to add trees to this rendering is the short answer to your question. I'll pull up the ground floor landscape plan, which I think we have. Yeah, correct. Yeah, and so that's just an error in the render.

And what are those? Yeah, not the median, the planting edge.

Yeah, next to the street level. This is fully landscaped per code, and we do have our street trees in that. So it's not being shown on the renderings, but if you were to stand here, you would see the required trees in the front there.

Splendid. And really, for the attorney question, you mentioned earlier the adjacent property and buying or acquiring some of the upper... I assume air rights, future development rights. Is that building as it sits then limited at that height? They can't build higher in the future and sort of block Frida's chin or anything?

So it's not technically limited by height, but there will be no development right for future residential uses. So it's unlikely that anybody would be.

But it could be, they could build a 12-story office building.

Eight-story office building?

They're also capped at floor area as well. So functionally, the box that's left for them will not really allow them to block the view.

Yeah, I'm trying to really make sure that we've got an understanding as we think about the rendering of the interpretation of Frida on the facade. And I won't attempt to repeat Zion's comments about artistic interpretation, all of that. I thought was very well said. What I'm more curious about is that the adjacent developer decides to do whatever height they're allowed to do, and does that leave you with a kind of Frida looking over a fence kind of a thing?

It's a fair point. It's a risk. We're confident that the way that the agreement is structured with them, that they will not be able to functionally, we're really taking what's left of their development rights So there's not really the ability to do much more than what is there now. They could, in theory, knock it down and build a new structure of similar size and scale that might go a story higher, call it, but it's not going to be a tower that would block the view. And I think it's important to note that not only to reconfirm that this is the exact piece, but this is the piece that has been approved by The Frito-Colo organization, they have approved it and they will have approval rights over the installation as well of the piece. So that's part of the licensing agreement that goes with them.

So without putting words in your mouth, just so I'm going to repeat back what I think I understand is that typically we would get art as a placeholder at this stage of the game, subject to future hiring muralists and so forth. Are you saying that in this case, the final product is going to look very similar to this because of what's already been approved by the Frida Kahlo? Correct.

Because of our arrangement with the Frida Kahlo organization, the licensing agreement with them, they have approved this specific piece. That is what they've approved. Correct.

On the wall. I think we need... I won't use names, but the owner of the property next to you can build a 12-story office building on that site. That's a fact, right? You're only buying his residential density, correct?

Yeah, that's my understanding, yes.

So what's preventing him from building a 12-story office building on that site?

He also has a limitation on square footage.

I'm building a 12-story office building two blocks west of here. on a smaller site than Doug owns right now. Okay. So I'm trying to understand, is there a written agreement that he's not allowed to go higher than the current building?

I think we already answered that. There isn't a written agreement. So I'll repeat it. There isn't a written agreement that caps him on height. We believe functionally, based on what he can do from what we have taken from the development rights, that he's not going to be able to

But if said property owner to the east builds a 12-story office building, What requirement of art is required on this building if the main art piece is gone?

That is the point from the original start of this conversation, is that to make it obvious to the board that a lot of these art proposals are beautiful, but have a possibility to get covered up. There's not much that we can do about it besides give the people who are proposing an opportunity to rethink their art in other areas of the building. The facades that are not getting covered up should be the places where we should be focusing the majority of our energy. What's interesting about this project that I really liked, not the actual finished product, but the idea, which is this one. In their proposal, they said, this is our art moment. And then they said, this is our architectural art moment. There's two distinct ideas. One is a graphic art, and one is architecture as art. And what lacks in Wynwood and a lot of places in South Florida is thinking about architecture as art. Maybe the conversations that we could be having are, what are these articulations that were inspired by Zaha Hadid's building? What is the materials that are being used? How are they going to be finished? What happens when you touch this? All these things are more important to me than, frankly, a picture of Frida, which could get covered up. Maybe, again, my first question was, is there a PSAIL requirement for this project? And if there is, can we see that? And if there's not, let's talk about the architecture. And let's talk about the art moments and the areas where you do have art that are not going to get covered up.

I agree with what you're saying. And I think they could do something with these beautifully designed shapes on the facade of the front. There could be a way to add some, it doesn't have to be a picture of a painting, but you could do some art intervention on the actual, I don't know what you want to call them.

I think that's a great suggestion. I mean, absolutely, our intent is for those to be sculptural, right? And there's a lot of, obviously, movement that's happening there. The material that's proposed to be used is GFCI material, which gives us flexibility to sort of work with it. And so we're happy to consider that as a, you know, as a condition for us to take a look at in, you know, articulating those with additional color moments that can, you know, pop and adhere to what we're doing with the murals and what we're doing on the 30th Street side.

That's an easy thing. In concert with that, you may have just ended on that note, would you consider, is it possible and would you consider bringing the kind of the artwork underneath the Paseo that's on the 30th side around to the 29th side?

We can definitely explore it. I think on the 29th street side, it's the retail and commercial uses that obviously want to have a lot of light and glass, right? So That is one of the reasons why there's less wall moments for art. But it doesn't mean that, again, that those columns can't have, you know, art moments, color and art moments within them. that are accomplishing what I think you're trying to accomplish or what you're suggesting that we explore. So we're happy to explore that.

I think the building, I don't have a problem with, I think some of my colleagues said with the building. I'm not even looking at the color portrait. I do think that it's, and I commend you with all the work you've done. I think it needs one more... one more step in terms of what the public realm is. When you're walking in Wynwood, it's this beautiful paseos, you see them. I mean, and the Frida Kahlo images is up above. But I would, to me, I would definitely think and we're not here to design your building, but my suggestion is that right now it's a step behind what the, if you were to look at this building and cover that Frida Kahlo, I would never know this is a Frida Kahlo building, just because, and I'm not saying that it needs to have, I think the essence of the art in public spaces in the Paseo needs to be a little bit more in the public, in the ground level. It's to me, I enjoy the arches, I enjoy the architecture of it, and I think that's doing, but it's lacking just that last element.

Yeah, I think we can explore maybe some opportunities and see if there's areas that maybe we can introduce a pop of art or color and things to really accentuate that ground floor.

Yeah, I mean, I like the simplicity. It's just, I mean, this is, I mean, I like the, this is Wynwood, and I think exploring those opportunities, I mean, if you go to the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico, I mean, I don't think you could find anything white in there. I believe it's blue or purple. It's, there's not a speck of white. So, looking at that, it enriches, and even the architecture will enrich the materiality. That's my only, in terms of the public realm of the building, the ground floor.

Fair point. We do have some opportunities in here behind the main facade where we can look at adding some art in here as well too. And then that will add a little bit more. The more I look at it, I definitely agree with you guys.

Well, before we call for a vote, I just think, and since we're in a public record, I do want to thank the applicant. for bringing your team here, landscape architecture, architecture, marketing, legal. It makes for a really good engaged dialogue and you can tell that you've got an exciting idea here by the quantity of that dialogue and exchange and your reception and open-mindedness. So it makes our job fun.

And we appreciate all your comments. It makes the project better. I mean, it really does. So we appreciate your feedback, and we are happy to incorporate that in the refinement of the project.

So do any of our brave colleagues here want to venture a motion with comments or notes? There's nobody more brave than you, Heidi. Come on, Heidi. I have one.

Sorry, I just have a quick question. So on the 29th Street side, the condos are just the top level or do they go down to where there's no?

They go to level three and up. Okay. Yep. So we have a level of office space. We have a level of parking. So you have the ground level where we have our lobby and a retail space, then parking, then deeded offices. And then, yep, so we have one liner unit, and then everything's units from there on up.

I gave you two more minutes to think about that.

I move for approval with the following conditions, that the... East facade is that the ownership maintains the east facade and its art aspect, whether it's running with a covenant in lieu with the adjacent property, and that's documented as part of their permit conditions. that the applicant consider additional art treatment on the lower promenade on the 29th Street facade to explore additional color aspects?

Or material.

They already said they're proposing a GFRC. which normally is white, but so. They say they're proposing a GFRC. It's gonna be painted stucco.

Not GFCI. Nope, nope, just confirmed, because we're actually VEing everything right now, so I just looked at her, I was like, are we actually doing it? She said, yes, it's GFRC.

And so with a motion to approve.

I just want to clarify one thing, okay? I'm not confident that a covenant in lieu would solve the problem with the neighbor. It could be any type of agreement that's recorded that they can make run with the land and both pieces of land, but it wouldn't be a covenant in lieu. I just want to correct that.

So I don't know the specifics on what land use is going to do, but if you have procured in some way, shape, or form the air rights and the density of your neighbor and built it into your building, there's some type of legal relation.

That is true. There is a document that reflects that. But with regards to an agreement with them, quote unquote, I'm not going to build X or I'm not going to do Y, that would be between them two and if they wanted to, right, to record it and make it that it runs against both properties, that's between them is what I'm saying.

to be clear and we just again to be clear we don't have in our present agreement and a particular height restriction and that would be something that would require us to have a whole other conversation so we'd kindly ask that that not be part of it um i mean i think we've i mean it'll be hard for the uh freedom residences

to not have her picture on the wall, right?

Does your agreement with the Calo family have any requirement to have a picture of her on the building? He's talking about with the food account, the licensing account?

It does not. I mean, it approves the design, but it does not require us to keep it necessarily. But I think, I mean, yeah, to Javier's point, it would be hard for us as a WDRC condition that's going to require a whole set of contractual kind of discussions with that neighbor. I think maybe by shifting some additional art to the front, we can offset that concern a little bit. And our intention, of course, is to maintain, I mean, that is important to the building. So our intention is certainly to maintain that large mural on the east, but by adding some to the front, we can assuage some of those concerns.

And I don't disagree, and I know that this is getting a little wordy, so I'll put a pin in it, but I don't want anyone to think that if you eliminate the mural on the east side and you're implementing some artwork in those little arches, that that one negates the other. Because that big mural on that east facade is everything.

And it's the biggest blank wall that we have in the project, right? So there's a reason that it's there. And it's obviously, 29th is a wide street. It's the place for it. And that kind of ground floor mural makes sense as a transition to when we're behind, right? So that was the thinking. And we understand the concern. And I know that staff definitely likes us covering that blank wall, even if, you know, decades down the line, it could be replaced. We don't expect it to be. But understood completely. I'm just not sure how we can word it in a condition here.

What's on the west side? Do you have a rendering?

It's glass. It's all glass. Yeah, it's glass. There's units in glass. Yeah, they're right.

I think you were all present for the Mohawk presentation. And this has a little bit of a similar situation that Mohawk, at the end of the day, their application to WDRC has to really kind of be based on what they can do on that street elevation. Because that side elevation that they showed is a blank canvas with kind of a, a black and white pattern placeholder is subject to change. Neighboring building that they don't control. You've got a little bit of that situation here. I think you're much further down the road on it than they would be as far as being subject to the whims. But I think what it does is what I'm summarizing in my mind is what you're hearing is you need to come back with a presentation of the facade as though you didn't, don't panic at the comeback. We'll talk about how to word this. But to me, you almost have to think about this as what would you do if you didn't have Frida on that side wall? What would your application be? It would be the street side, would be the subject of the canvas of your application. And I think that, critical to remember because that'll kind of that'll speak to how much focus and how much effort you put into articulating that 29th Avenue facade in other words you may want to carry a pretty heavy pen into that not just it can't be an afterthought it can't be just a little bit under the right the Paseo it may not be enough and so you almost think about it like you don't have that side and and I think that's why we're

totally comfortable with looking at the 29th Street facade with color and from a completely different lens, because that would be where the art would work, which is where I thought we were landing with respect to the catastrophic what-if situation of if they were able to do something that somehow blocked that mural, which is why the art on 29th Street would be enhanced. I think you get it. And we're happy to have a condition that, you know, indicates that, that we would enhance 29th Street consistent with the color scheme, you know, and elements of, you know, the Frida Kahlo, you know, moment. We do have as well within just, you know, obviously within the Paseo, within our amenities deck, and within the interiors, a heavy amount of, you know, exhibition that is in line with, a modern expression of Frida Kahlo. So all of that is there. So while obviously the mural is as important to us as it is to you, we're confident that the expression of Frida Kahlo would still very much exist here, even if there was a catastrophic situation of it being blocked in part or not.

If I understood correctly, as the art shifted from the east facade to the front facade, that WDRC board would like to see how that art is being placed on the front facade before it goes through the permitting process?

I personally would feel most comfortable to see kind of the redraw. of the 29th Street facade. Is that your point Andrea?

That's what I understood from the conversation back and forth that you were asking like if that as the art shifted from one elevation to the another, how is that gonna be? Now it goes to the primary frontage which is the WDRC requirement.

Not changing Heidi's motion. My comfort level, just one person's comfort level would be, go ahead.

No, no, I just wanna make sure. Because now I'm confused as to what Heidi's motion is, the approval with conditions. So let's back that up. So the approval with condition is the way I understood it, taking out anything with regards to the neighbor, right? Is that because of the neighbor, not the neighbor itself, that more has to be incorporated onto the street facade on 29th Street, in addition to the attempt to permanently, or as long as humanly possible, maintain the east facade with her portrait. Correct.

Because if it's a painted as opposed to an applied, like one of the screens or something, even if the other building was eight stories, may not be ideal, but something would technically still be there.

That's my- That is right, that is your motion. So that motion, if I articulate it correctly, would need a second.

Correct. Can I just ask a question?

Go ahead.

I mean, I don't know if I understood it correctly, so excuse me. There's something that you may have addressed when you were talking about, as you think about integrating art into the 29th Street facade, that there is some other artwork that already is sort of publicly accessible within the Paseo, or...

So I think the reference was to the interior design, right? The interiors of this building will be fully also on- It was the interior design. Yes, yes, that was what that comment was. And yeah, there isn't a Paseo required here, so we don't have the, this was to your question earlier, right? I think we've heard Paseo, it's the arcades in the front on the street frontage, yeah.

So I mean, this committee has no jurisdiction over interiors.

Right, which is why we haven't presented it.

Sorry. Is there a second?

Second. We have a motion for approval with conditions, not a return. With the two conditions that I won't repeat, It's been summarized well enough. And then second from Member Zion, we'll call for a vote. All in favor of that recommendation with conditions?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Thank you. Thank you all very much. Appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Before we go, I believe you had a discussion item?

Yes, we have a discussion item.

And I apologize. Just a couple minutes. I have to go to a different meeting, but I have been told that it's okay to leave you with the discussion item.

Yes. Thank you. It's on the Wynwood Urban Design Vision Plan. We'll be sharing our screens shortly.

Sure. I think we still have a call.

Oh, my God. Hello, everyone. My name's Brittany. I'm going to discuss about this Wynwood Vision Plan a little bit. Next slide. So at the end of February, we officially kicked off our Wynwood Vision Plan. Give me a second. To document the neighborhood's history and evolving character, establish architectural and public art guidelines for new construction and adaptive reuse, and outline best practices for implementing the Woodward NRD 1 code requirements. The planning department and Woodward BID have engaged with Gensler as the lead consultants. Gensler brings both local experience and regional office within the neighbourhood. The eight-month planning process will include multiple opportunities for community and stakeholders engagement. Last week, the planning department or design division met with D5 office Gensler staff, WDRC, and Wynwood bid members for a walkthrough of the Wynwood neighborhood. The purpose was to identify good and bad examples of the architecture, landscape, signage, and art to develop design guidelines for the neighborhoods. And as something that was discussed earlier, lighting as well, paseos, everything. And that's basically it. If you guys have any questions.

Mm-hmm.

We cannot hear you on the mic.

I hear you, but they cannot hear you on the live stream.

Sorry.

But it's a good point. Public works, they are part of one of our outreach community groups, so we organize everything in groups. They're part of one of them, but that's something that I think is going to have to, it's more than just a meeting with them. It has to be something enforceable.

I mean, it's something that their department has gotten very, very strict on, and it may be able to be mutually beneficial for the area by you know addressing something that has an interesting stylistic approach as well as maybe even meeting with FPNL on what poles are what light heads are approved for certain areas the poles the pole right but there's much smaller municipalities that are doing similar and I think that would be interesting

Do we have a similar issue with lighting that we have with landscaping where the city controls certain streets and the county controls others?

Yes, and even on the lighting fixtures of the city-owned jurisdiction, FPL has a different catalog of approved light fixtures than the ones proposed under the master plan, so not everybody can get to use the same one. and then you have like a collage of light fixtures in some streets compared to others, yeah.

Right. But you can get it down to, let's say, four, that the poles are all the same, and you have head style one, two, three, four, but, you know, like I said, smaller, I think Florida City has done it, Homestead's done it, some smaller areas that I think that if we look at it, it would be advantageous.

Yeah.

Now the Gensler team is going to come to WDRC to one of our meetings for one of, they all have to meet, they have to meet with different groups. WDRC is one of them, WDRB and many more groups. So they're coming to one meeting. I'll let you know in advance so that we can, you know, like have a more interactive discussion with them. But we, yeah, we want to hear it all so that they can take all the information and give us their recommendations.

Right. Yeah, I just want to say I came to this Wynwood walkthrough, and it was actually, you know, it was very helpful. So, you know, I was in Wynwood before all these buildings were coming up, and, you know, right before the zoning changes, and then we started to build projects in the neighborhood. But what Wynwood is today is completely different, and now there's opportunities to... actually walk through these buildings and see like, this is a good idea, this is a bad idea, this is a poor thing. And having to walk with people who work for the planning department and having conversations with them and architects and different people in the neighborhood who own properties is so helpful for this board because The thing that caught me off guard is that I'm not a politician, and so I didn't know about cone of silence and all these things that apply that don't allow us to have conversations. I was excited to sit in a room and talk to my peers and say, guys, what would be the best way to move forward to make this a good neighborhood? And the first reply from the team is like, hey, you guys can't talk to each other outside of this place. This is your only opportunity to talk to each other. And so when we were able to do this walk, it was clear the society building, if you guys go inside, the courtyard there is terrible. And then you go to other ones that were more successful. And so there are, today, I don't know if you guys noticed, the project that we approved that was the skinny building, he said, Brick veneer. It wasn't, at first, that was just like, I think that was a slip. They were talking about this reclaimed brick, it's gonna be beautiful, and then all of a sudden he said brick veneer. That was what we, the first thing that the team pointed out on society is that they have this brick veneer that has a terrible meeting point in the corners where there's no chanfer or anything so you could clearly see it's fake. So it becomes this Disney World moment. So there's a lot of details and ideas that need to be reviewed. On the West Elm picture that you have up here, you know, people had problems with the signage and the integration. But, you know, what's successful about that corner is the design of cutting the corner off on the ground space for a lot of people to congregate there. That happens in Argentina. Every corner... You're forbidden to make a corner to allow people to have this moment of meeting points. And so how do we talk about architecture when Gensler's involved trying to come up with the landscaping is huge. It's like every corner has a totally different successful and unsuccessful point of landscaping. Coincidentally, the trees next to West Elm were the most beautiful that I saw in the entire neighborhood. So there's a lot of efforts to this kind of neighborhood that needs to go for it to continue to succeed and move forward nicely.

All right. Thank you. Thank you.

Well, before you skate off and turn that off, would you just go back one slide, please? I'm looking, help me find, are there public hearing slots or public hearing dates along the timeline here to Zion's point where we're allowed to get a, this, you know, a couple hours of public dialogue? Yes. Okay. For end of March. Thanks.

We don't have a date selected yet, but we just started basically at the beginning of March. We know it's going to go for the next eight months. So we're going to try to meet before the recess in August, and then we will just have to advertise it as a public hearing where different members from different boards are going to show up. And so there is no like the walkthrough. We had people from different boards, and then we had to advertise it as a meeting for , WDRC, D5, so they could all actually be in attendance and talk to each other.

streetscape heavy, I just think that meeting sooner than later with zoning, parking, public works and fire for those external elements are going to be so pivotal, you know, because you're going to have some things that are constraints you can't overcome. And then how do you live with those? That may kind of dictate some things.

Yeah, no, that's a very good point.

Maybe we could do two things to wrap up. One is, can you send this to us electronically? Yes. And secondly, is there a summary of the Gensler scope of service?

Yeah, we have that as well. We can send both.

That would be good to look at because it'd be interesting to Heidi's point, to Zion's point of, you know, in their scope of service, does it talk about street furniture? Does it talk about lighting? Does, you know, It may help us understand how high an altitude or how low an altitude they're drilling into things. Thanks.

Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you. That would be great.

Now, can we get a motion to adjourn, please?

Move to adjourn. I think we all agree.