Miami is known more for its beaches, culture, nightlife, and arts scene than for being a technology hub, but a newly proposed mixed-use district is slated to help reposition the city as “Florida’s Silicon Valley” in the near future.

On an approximately 10-acre, four-block area in Miami’s Park West neighborhood, the team of SHoP Architects and West 8, led by noted developer Michael Simkins, have put forward a plan for an urban campus that will provide the infrastructure for the future growth of creative technology industries in the city. The Miami Innovation District is conceived as an integrated complex of mutually

supportive programs including public amenities, targeted retail opportunities, indoor and outdoor spaces for community and campus gathering, performance and exhibition zones, office environments suited to the collaborative work typical of high-performing tech companies, and a variety of housing designed specifically for the generation that will be drawn to work for such companies. In total, the project comprises 3,850,000 square feet of office programs, 2,400,000 square feet of residential and 250,000 square feet of retail with 2,500 spaces for parking integrated into the buildings.

The Miami Innovation Tower will be a new icon for the city and a major public entry-point into the creative life of the district. With its fully integrated active skin—a global first—the tower celebrates the unique flavor and vitality of the city and announces its arrival as a world-class center for information technologies. The architecture of the tower is inspired by a variety of forms associated with the identity of the city, ranging from contemporary sculpture and fashion to the taught, wing-like, graphics-covered sails of modern racing sailboats—an homage to nearby Biscayne Bay.

At ground level, a public plaza and amphitheater will host cultural events, as well as provide an inspiring setting for retail. As it rises, the Tower hosts several observation decks, including a garden in the sky, that will also serve as a demonstration site for the installation of environmental technologies.

The new Innovation District signals to the world that Miami is holding onto its special flare even as it catches and rides the coming high-tech wave.