[Altoic]

Development bonanza: Four Miami projects nab approval
https://therealdeal.com/miami/2022/09/22...medium=widget&utm_campaign=feature_posts

“To me, it seems outdated,” board member and architect Gia Zappatini said. “It feels to me like it was built in the ‘70s. Is there something you can explore in the façade of the building that is a little more modern?”

Another URDB member, architect Willy Bermello, said the design looked even older. “When you look at the architectural expression…when you look at these protruding columns, it looks like something you would be doing in Miami Beach in the 1950s. I am not sure that is what you want, but it comes off like that,” he said.

Yet, Grand Peaks representatives declined an offer to delay a vote so that the project’s architect, Albert Cordoves, could tweak the building’s aesthetics.
“Unfortunately, we have some contractual obligations,” Grand Peaks’ lawyer Ines Marrero said. “We cannot come back next month. We need a decision today.”

As a result, the board voted 5-1 to reject Grand Peak’s project and its requested waivers for a 10 percent increase in floorplates to accommodate larger apartments and 14 percent parking reduction to 344 spaces in the building’s proposed garage and eight on-street spaces.

Grand Peaks, led by Luke Simpson and Nick Simpson, can request that Miam’s planning director ignore the UDRB’s decision and approve Empire Brickell’s current design and waivers.

Multiple projects were approved today, this was the outlier. Kind of odd how they bashed this building for looking old. Yeah, it does but then what's with the recent developments surrounding the whole building? Those look equally old, they need to be real.