High-rise residential · Miami
Casa Bella Residences
A 57-story tower on Biscayne Boulevard, and the riser strategy that had to fit inside it.
- Address
- 1444 Biscayne Blvd, Miami
- Height
- 57 stories
- Residences
- 306, incl. 24 penthouses
- Architect
- Arquitectonica
- Contractor
- Moss Construction
- Developer
- Related Group & Alta Developers
- Interiors
- Piero Lissoni / B&B Italia
- Our scope
- M / E / P / FP?
- MEP area
- sq ft
- Cooling
- system + tonnage
- Electrical service
- amps / volts
- Year & status
- year, built?
The challenge
Fifty-seven stories on Biscayne Boulevard put two pressures on the MEP design at the same time. High-rise life safety under the Florida Building Code demands stair pressurization, smoke control and a standpipe and fire pump arrangement zoned across the full height of the tower. Meanwhile every inch of shaft and ceiling plenum competes directly with sellable ceiling height — and Casa Bella sells ten-foot ceilings in the residences and eleven to twelve feet in the penthouse collection.
Two private elevators per residence and biometric access control add load and coordination that a conventional tower does not carry. The coastal site adds hurricane exposure: the design has to hold up during a storm and keep life safety systems running after one.
What we designed
Draft — Jose to confirm and correct
The riser strategy consolidates mechanical, electrical and plumbing verticals into a coordinated core so that horizontal distribution stays above the ceiling line without dropping the finished height. [System type, tonnage, pump and zoning arrangement to be supplied.] Electrical distribution serves 306 units plus the amenity levels from [service size], with life safety power on [generator arrangement]. Plumbing risers are zoned at [zoning] to hold pressure across 57 floors without booster noise reaching the residences.
The outcome
To be supplied Permit path, review jurisdiction, delivered tonnage and any measurable result.
This page is a draft for internal review. The challenge section is written from publicly known project facts and general code requirements. Every bracketed item needs Jose's confirmation before publication, and nothing here should go live until the rendering credit and publication permission are in hand.