MKDA puts a modern spin on a classic coffered ceiling in the art-filled lobby of developer Related Group’s headquarters building in Miami; the colorful statue is by Niki de Saint Phalle.
MKDA puts a modern spin on a classic coffered ceiling in the art-filled lobby of developer Related Group’s headquarters building in Miami; the colorful statue is by Niki de Saint Phalle.

August 29, 2022

Words: Michael Lassell

Photography: Alexander Severin

This MKDA-Designed Headquarters in Miami Features Museum-Ready Art

If you live in Miami and care about art and architecture, you’ll be familiar with Jorge M. Pérez and Related Group, the development company he founded in 1979. Born in 1949 in Argentina to Cuban parents, and raised in Colombia, Pérez emigrated in 1968 to this country. After earning a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Michigan, he began his career by constructing affordable housing, graduating to high-rise apartment buildings in both North and South America. Now a billionaire art collector and philanthropist, the “King of the Condo,” as some call him, made such a transformative gift to the former Miami Art Museum that the institution was renamed the Pérez Art Museum Miami when it moved into its new Herzog & de Meuron home in 2013.

In 2021, Related relocated its headquarters to the top two floors of a new LEED-certified concrete-and-glass building in Coconut Grove, Miami’s historically art-minded neighborhood, where Pérez and his wife, Darlene, live—as do Bernardo Fort-Brescia and Laurinda Spear, the founding principals of Arquitectonica, which designed the eight-story gem. To create the building’s interiors, Pérez turned to the Miami studio of MKDA, a multicity firm that made its reputation by revolutionizing the fashion showrooms of Manhattan’s Garment District. Regional managing principal Amanda Hertzler and her team joined the project early on, working most closely with Related senior vice president Nicholas Pérez, Jorge’s son (his brother Jon Paul is the company’s president), but much of the proceedings were driven by the founder and CEO himself.

  • Porcelain tile flooring and a stretch fabric–like LED ceiling, materials used throughout, outfit the eighth-floor elevator lobby.
    Porcelain tile flooring and a stretch fabric–like LED ceiling, materials used throughout, outfit the eighth-floor elevator lobby.
  • An elongated version of Mies van der Rohe’s classic Barcelona daybed, rendered in bronze-painted fiberglass by Judy Niedermaier, faces reception’s custom desk in Champagne-finished stainless steel and marble backed by a rosewood-clad wall.
    An elongated version of Mies van der Rohe’s classic Barcelona daybed, rendered in bronze-painted fiberglass by Judy Niedermaier, faces reception’s custom desk in Champagne-finished stainless steel and marble backed by a rosewood-clad wall.
  • MKDA puts a modern spin on a classic coffered ceiling in the art-filled lobby of developer Related Group’s headquarters building in Miami; the colorful statue is by Niki de Saint Phalle.
    MKDA puts a modern spin on a classic coffered ceiling in the art-filled lobby of developer Related Group’s headquarters building in Miami; the colorful statue is by Niki de Saint Phalle.
  • Booths in the employee lounge have velvet-upholstered seating, terrazzo paneling, and LED sconces.
    Booths in the employee lounge have velvet-upholstered seating, terrazzo paneling, and LED sconces.
  • The lounge outside the executive offices includes a Sol LeWitt folding screen, vintage Emiel Veranneman armchairs, a Robert Kuo coffee table, and Nocturnal Plaza, a dark bronze sculpture by Jorge Méndez Blake.
    The lounge outside the executive offices includes a Sol LeWitt folding screen, vintage Emiel Veranneman armchairs, a Robert Kuo coffee table, and Nocturnal Plaza, a dark bronze sculpture by Jorge Méndez Blake.
  • CEO Jorge M. Pérez specifically asked that the conference room’s custom old-growth redwood table have a live-edge.
    CEO Jorge M. Pérez specifically asked that the conference room’s custom old-growth redwood table have a live-edge.
  • A glass-walled atrium provides natural light for the eighth floor’s collaboration space, outfitted with acoustic-felt ceiling baffles and Lievore Altherr Molina stools.
    A glass-walled atrium provides natural light for the eighth floor’s collaboration space, outfitted with acoustic-felt ceiling baffles and Lievore Altherr Molina stools.
  • Hans Wegner lounge chairs and Piero Lissoni’s Mex glass coffee table join a Sanford Biggers marble bust and a Friedel Dzubas painting in Pérez’s office.
    Hans Wegner lounge chairs and Piero Lissoni’s Mex glass coffee table join a Sanford Biggers marble bust and a Friedel Dzubas painting in Pérez’s office.

“In addition to the building lobby and the Related offices, we also designed the elevator lobbies, the elevator cabs, restrooms, and a law firm on the fourth floor,” Hertzler reports. “Because we were going to install a lot of art, we kept the materials muted and neutral.” In the ground-floor lobby, for instance, she covered walls with slabs of matte porcelain that resemble marble but used scored, sandblasted gray limestone on the reception desk and other surfaces to create a softening contrast. She then added flashes of Champagne-finished stainless steel for some inimitable Miami elan.

Even more playful is the lobby’s coffered ceiling, a modernized nod to the carved-wood versions found in Coconut Grove’s historic Mediterranean-style mansions. “We changed the shapes of the coffers, so they’re all different,” notes Hertzler, who backed each recess with a sheet of LumaFilm—a flexible, paper-thin membrane incorporating tiny LEDs—to provide soft, ambient light overhead. The building’s mechanical systems are hidden above the glowing fabric, but the lobby’s rotating display of artworks is accommodated with visible gallery-style track lights that can be refocused remotely.

Artworks near the base of the stair­case include Robb Pruitt’s Untitled, a sculpture com­prising a stack of four painted tires and, on the left, Ai Weiwei’s Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (LEGO), a “painting” composed of the interlocking plastic bricks.
Artworks near the base of the stair­case include Robb Pruitt’s Untitled, a sculpture com­prising a stack of four painted tires and, on the left, Ai Weiwei’s Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (LEGO), a “painting” composed of the interlocking plastic bricks.
Italian marble forms the grand staircase, which also functions as a platform for a rotating display of artworks, such as Donna Huanca’s sculpture Cliona Chilenis on the left.
Italian marble forms the grand staircase, which also functions as a platform for a rotating display of artworks, such as Donna Huanca’s sculpture Cliona Chilenis on the left.

Related’s main reception area—its massive stainless-steel and marble desk set off by a wall of backlit rosewood panels—and executive offices occupy the top floor, while employee work spaces and facilities, including a collaborative area and a lounge, fill the floor below. “The building has an offset core,” Hertzler observes, “which would tend to make the interior of each floor quite dark.” On the other hand, it allowed Arquitectonica to sink a two-story glass-enclosed atrium at the center of the headquarters. “Related has a traditional corporate culture,” continues Hertzler, “so we installed the usual per­imeter offices, but the atrium floods the interiors with light. The transparency comes with a connectivity, because you can see people working on the other side.” On both floors, she created communal spaces that take full advantage of the atrium’s natural light.

There is art everywhere, some 300 pieces that range in form from the traditional oil on canvas to every imaginable “alternative” medium, including an Ai Weiwei “painting” composed of Lego bricks. A 16-foot-long bench in reception that appears to be a cast-bronze version of a Mies van der Rohe Barcelona daybed is, in fact, a metallic-painted fiberglass-and-steel piece created by Judy Niedermaier in the 1990’s for the lobby of the Mies-designed IBM building in Chicago. The bench had to be craned into place because it wouldn’t fit in the freight elevator.

Arqui­tectonica designed the eight-story, concrete-and-glass building, the top two floors of which house Related’s headquarters.
Arqui­tectonica designed the eight-story, concrete-and-glass building, the top two floors of which house Related’s headquarters.
Untitled #1 by John Castles dominates the ground-floor elevator lobby.
Untitled #1 by John Castles dominates the ground-floor elevator lobby.

The bench sits next to the grand Calacatta Toscana marble staircase that connects the floors and also acts as a platform for artworks, which undergo a monthly rotation. “That doesn’t mean every piece is changed every month,” Hertzler explains, “but a lot of the art travels and needs to be swapped out.” Pérez has promised his collection to the museum that now bears his name. “One of the nicest things about the art installation is how approachable it is, even in the common areas.”

Along with their own lounge, employees get two outdoor spaces in which to relax: a courtyard terrace at the base of the atrium and an expansive Arquitectonica-designed roof garden, which includes a covered area and open zones with enviable views of Biscayne Bay. “The roof is lush and eclectic, with beautiful, old, exterior-grade furniture,” Hertzler concludes. “At Related, even the seating is art.”

The Well, a 13-foot-tall bronze sculpture by Enrique Martínez Celaya, sits in the rooftop garden overlooking the two-story atrium.
The Well, a 13-foot-tall bronze sculpture by Enrique Martínez Celaya, sits in the rooftop garden overlooking the two-story atrium.
David Geckeler chairs supplement a wall of built-in banquettes in the employee lounge.
David Geckeler chairs supplement a wall of built-in banquettes in the employee lounge.
project team
MKDA: kamilah bermudez; tonya watts; erin london
jalrw engineering group: mep
hyton engineering: civil engineer
advanced millwork: woodwork
city construction: general contractor
product sources from front
knoll: chairs, daybed (lobby)
Rimex Metals: reception desk (lobby), paneling (elevator lobby)
galaxy glass: glass panels (ele­vator lobby)
through 1stdibs: custom bench (reception)
exotic hardwoods + veneers: paneling
Coalesse: stools (collaboration)
Kvadrat Maharam: stool fabric
cf stinson: lounge chair fabric
acoufelt: ceiling baffles
gable roofs: lounge chairs, high tables (collaboration), desks (offices)
besa lighting: sconces (employee lounge)
perennials fabrics: booth fabric
woodtech: custom table (conference room), custom desk (ceo office)
stylex seating: task chairs
muuto: chairs (employee lounge)
designtex: banquette fabric
ben soleimani: sofa (ceo office)
carl hansen & søn: lounge chairs
piero lissoni: coffee table
robert kuo: red table (lounge)
throughout
empire office: furniture supplier
muraflex: storefront systems
florim: floor tile, wall slabs
architile: marble, quartz, terrazzo supplier
universal tile & marble enterprises: lime­stone supplier
heilux: stretch fabric lighting
Finelite: lighting
lightheaded: lighting
liton lighting:: lighting
bentley: carpet
benjamin moore & co.: paint

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