CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, in collaboration with developer Jeff Greene, presents MiMar, a 25-story residential tower in West Palm Beach. Developed under Florida’s Live Local Act, the building integrates affordable and market-rate housing within a single vertical community. Sited above the historic Datura Fire Station, the project features a zig-zag façade that responds to its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, granting every residence a view of the sea while maximizing privacy between neighbors and responding to climate conditions. The design translates Florida’s coastal architectural legacy—rooted in its Art Deco splendor—into a more contemporary form.
CRA was inspired by Art Deco in Miami, where coastal living is shaped by orientation. MiMar folds outward in an undulating geometry, and each residential module is angled toward the ocean. On the coast, the view is an asset—and one that is often distributed according to price. Here, geometry becomes a tool for distributing that asset more evenly across the building. Alternating solid and open surfaces create privacy between adjacent neighbors. The form is therefore not applied, but generated directly by the relationship between view and inhabitation.
Climate is a second sculpting force. Engineered for South Florida conditions, MiMar uses geometry to respond to solar exposure and prevailing winds. The same folds that orient each residence toward the ocean also mediate its exposure to the sun. Balconies gradually deepen as the building rises, shading the residences below, so the façade grows more protective as exposure increases. The façade thus becomes a changing environmental filter, shaping the exchange between indoor and outdoor life across seasons.
MiMar is a vertical neighborhood where all residents share the same entrance, elevators, sea views and amenities. Affordable housing represents 40% of all units, ensuring that lower-income residents form an integral part of the community. Amenities are concentrated on a landscaped podium terrace, creating shared spaces for interaction and collective life.
At street level, active retail spaces face Datura Street, while the main residential entrance opens onto South Dixie Highway. The preserved frontage of the Datura Fire Station anchors the project within the architectural heritage of West Palm Beach, keeping a piece of the city’s civic memory in use at the base of the tower.
MiMar employs a hybrid mass timber and concrete structural system, aligned with Florida’s emerging frameworks for tall timber construction. Beyond reducing embodied carbon, this material strategy enables advanced off-site fabrication. Modules are produced in controlled conditions and assembled on site, shortening construction time and limiting disruption in a dense downtown block.
“In the collective imagination, Palm Beach is the antithesis of affordability,” says Carlo Ratti, founding partner of CRA and professor at MIT and the Politecnico di Milano. “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?”
MiMar continues CRA’s exploration of new forms of vertical urbanism. Previous projects include CapitaSpring in Singapore, which extends the skyscraper into a network of gardens and public spaces, and Palazzo Micca in Turin, which transforms an office tower into a civic destination. In West Palm Beach, the focus shifts to housing—asking how one of the city’s most valuable assets, the ocean view, can be shared more equitably through design rather than reserved as a privilege for the few.
CREDITS
CRA team: 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
Zoning & Code Consultant: Maestro Technologies