DeSimone Returns to Mandarin Oriental Miami | DeSimone Consulting Engineering

It’s rare for a structural engineering and development team to work together on two generations of a site—which makes our structural engineering work on The Residences at Mandarin Oriental Miami especially significant.

In 1978, Swire Properties purchased land on man-made Claughton Island off the Miami coast to develop it into a master-planned luxury neighborhood. They chose DeSimone as engineer of record for their flagship, ultra-luxury waterfront hotel operated by Mandarin Oriental Group, known for its elegant, refined concepts and strong focus on hospitality.

Opened in 2000 with a gently tapering roofline emulating Mandarin Oriental’s sampan logo, DeSimone’s design for the structure of the original Mandarin Oriental combined conventional and post-tensioned slabs with shear walls for lateral stability and deep piles anchoring the foundation.

Now—decades later—Swire Properties has invited us back to the same site for a new challenge—the Residences at the Mandarin Oriental Miami. Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, two interconnected, concrete towers will rise from a shared podium to host private residences, hotel suites, spa, and multiple restaurants and bars.

Our deep familiarity with the original structure gave us a critical advantage in reimagining the site for the new project. We carefully overlaid the new plans over the existing plans to strategically position new piles that clear existing foundations. Our façade and building envelope experts developed large-format fenestration systems and enclosure assemblies, ensuring resilience against hurricane-force winds and extreme coastal exposure.

Since opening DeSimone’s Miami office in 1975, it has been so gratifying for us to be an ongoing player in the city’s evolution from a resort town to an international hub for business and culture. As Miami experiences a new phase in this evolution, DeSimone is again being called upon to provide best-in-class consulting services for the city’s most transformative and forward-looking projects.