MiMar: A Sea View for Everyone
2 days ago
3 min read
Palm Beach is famous for its exclusivity, with its neat hedges, private clubs, and ocean views reserved for those who can afford them. Carlo Ratti Associati (CRA) set out to change this with MiMar, a new 25-story residential tower in West Palm Beach. Built with Jeff Greene under Florida's Live Local Act, the building brings together affordable and market-rate apartments, giving every resident the same view of the Atlantic, regardless of what they pay.
MiMar. Credit: CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati
The tower rises over the historic Datura Fire Station, giving a piece of the city's past together with new homes at street level. In a place like Florida, where paychecks just haven't kept up with how expensive it is to live near the water, MiMar raises the question of whether design, not just policy, can make waterfront living possible for more people.
The tower’s most notable feature is its zig-zag façade, which turns every apartment toward the sea. CRA took inspiration from Miami’s Art Deco waterfront, where a building’s direction determines who gets the best view. MiMar changes this by using folded shapes, not floor level or price, to decide who enjoys the ocean view.
Every single apartment faces the ocean. The outside of the building is designed with a mix of solid walls and open spaces, so you get the view without feeling like your neighbours are watching you. Instead of making people pay a premium for a water view, this building gives it to everyone.
MiMar. Credit: CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati MiMar. Credit: CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati
At MiMar, the building’s shape serves two roles. The folds that turn each apartment toward the ocean also shield them from the Florida sun. Balconies get deeper on higher floors, so the upper levels, which get more sun and wind, have more shade than the lower ones.
The exterior of the building adapts to the weather, blurring the line between indoor and outdoor living. It means you can easily leave your windows and doors open for way more of the year. Instead of just blasting the AC to fight South Florida's heat, humidity, and hurricane winds, the whole place was built to work with the local climate.
Forty percent of MiMar’s apartments are affordable housing, and residents with lower incomes use the same lobby, elevators, sea views, and amenities as everyone else. There is no separate entrance, and nothing to indicate who pays the market rate or who does not. All shared amenities are on a landscaped terrace, giving neighbours from all income levels a place to meet.
MiMar honours local history by integrating the original Datura Fire Station facade right into the tower's base, adding retail space along Datura Street and a main entrance on South Dixie Highway. It’s an eco-friendly build that mixes concrete and mass timber to meet Florida’s new codes and lower carbon emissions. By pre-fabricating parts off-site, construction is faster and far less disruptive to downtown.
MiMar. Credit: CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati
MiMar is another example of CRA’s projects that rethink what tall buildings can offer their residents. After CapitaSpring in Singapore and Palazzo Micca in Turin, where the studio turned office towers into public spaces, the focus in West Palm Beach is on housing and who gets to enjoy the ocean as part of daily life.
"In the collective imagination, Palm Beach is the antithesis of affordability. Yet this is precisely what drew us to this project: could we make coastal living accessible to all? And could we give everyone the same sea views?" - Carlo Ratti, founding partner of CRA and professor at MIT and the Politecnico di Milano.
With MiMar, CRA is betting that the answer is yes, proving it with each fold of the façade.
MiMar. Credit: CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati
Credits
CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati:
Design: Carlo Ratti, Andrea Cassi (partner-in-charge), Rui Guan (Project Manager), Anchalinad Anuwatnontaket, Jelena Krco
Graphics team: Gary Di Silvio, Pasquale Milieri
Strategy & Innovation: Luca Bussolino
Maestro Technologies: Zoning & Code Consultant
