Harvesting Sweet Success: CÚRE & PENABAD's Peachy Venture

Mixed-use residential buildings on small infill lots are virtually non-existent in contemporary Miami. However, if the city is to address both the challenges of climate and affordability, it must densify its patchwork of neighbourhoods through incremental growth that allows more participants to benefit from current development trends. To this end, the PEACH PROJECT is developed along NW 14th Street in Overtown. Once a thriving black neighbourhood in the city, urban and land use policies following World War II severed Overtown from its surroundings and initiated a period of decline that continues to this day.

This project seeks to invest in Overtown by creating a headquarters for CATALYST Miami, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to fostering powerful, grassroots networks in the community. The project creates a new, compact, urban courtyard building that contains a micro-retail space at grade, offices and a court on the second floor, and three affordable housing units on the upper stories. Conceived on a 3,500 sq. ft. parcel (approximately half the size of an average residential lot) the building presents a new infill model for the future growth of Miami.