The Miami Tower is a 47-story, landmark office

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is located in central

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

. It is currently the 16th tallest building in Miami and Florida. On April 18, 2012, the

AIA AIA or A.I.A. or Aia may refer to: Aia * Aia, a small town in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa, Spain * Aia, current Kutaisi, ancient capital of Colchis * Aia, another name for Aea (Malis), an ancient town in Greece * ''Aia'', the collected ed ...

's Florida Chapter placed it on its list of ''Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places'' as the Bank of America Tower. In 2022, the office skyscraper was purchased b
DRA Advisors and CP Group
the largest office landlord in Downtown Miami and Florida.

History

Built for

CenTrust Bank CenTrust Bank, A State Savings Bank was a Miami, Florida-based savings and loan. Its failure in 1990 was one of the largest and costliest failures of the savings and loan crisis. Background and downfall Dade Savings & Loan Association opened i ...

in 1987, the 47-story building ranks in the top twenty tallest skyscrapers in Miami and in Florida at a height of and is known for its elaborate night-time illuminations and its dramatic three glass tiers. Designed by the

Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Pei Cobb Freed & Partners is an American architecture, architectural firm based in New York City, founded in 1955 by I. M. Pei and other associates.

architectural firm, the tower consists of two separate structures: A 10-story

parking garage A multistorey car park (British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a build ...

owned by the city and the 47-story office tower built upon the air rights of the garage. Preliminary planning for the tower began in February 1980; construction on the garage began by November. The garage was completed in February 1983 and the tower began construction a year later. In August 1984, while the tower was under construction, a 5-alarm fire began on the ninth floor; construction was subsequently delayed for several weeks. On December 15, 1985, the tower was lit for the first time in

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

aqua and snowflakes. By mid-1986, the tower's exterior was complete and the grand opening for the complex was set for early fall that same year. Due to the uneven settling of the tower's foundation to one side by several inches, and the resulting misalignment of the tower's elevator rails, the grand opening for the complex was delayed until February 1987. The complete complex featured the world's only elevated

metro station A metro station or subway station is a station for a rapid transit system, which as a whole is usually called a "metro" or "subway". A station provides a means for passengers to purchase Train ticket, tickets, board trains, and Emergency eva ...

in a skyscraper (

Knight Center station Knight Center is a Metromover station in Downtown, Miami, Florida located in the Miami Tower. This station is located at the intersection of Southwest Second Street and Second Avenue, connected to the namesake James L. Knight Center by a glas ...

). It also gained notoriety for its luxurious interiors, including a

skylobby A sky lobby is an intermediate interchange floor in a skyscraper where people can change from an express elevator that stops only at the sky lobby to a local elevator that stops at a subset of higher floors. When designing supertall buildings ...

on the 11th floor covered in marble and gold and a outdoor terrace. Also its indoor

gym A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational ins ...

features

mahogany Mahogany is a straight-grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus ''Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: Unive ...

cabinets. The tower is connected to the James L. Knight Center by a pedestrian walkway and on the first floor is a retail spine covered with green marble. The tower contains with of office space and a , 1,500 space

. The tower can be seen in the "Streetwise" episode of ''

Miami Vice ''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann (director), Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo ...

'' which aired on December 5, 1986. The building appears during the end credits of the 1986 film ''

Flight Of The Navigator ''Flight of the Navigator'' is a 1986 American science fiction adventure film directed by Randal Kleiser and written by Mark H. Baker, Michael Burton, and Matt MacManus. It stars Joey Cramer as David Freeman, a 12-year-old boy who is abducted by ...

'' in an aerial shot of Miami. The top floors can clearly be seen still under construction. The roof of the building was the set of

Gloria Estefan Gloria Estefan (; born Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García; born 1 September 1957) is a Cuban-American singer, actress, and businesswoman. Estefan is a seven-time Grammy Award winner, a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, and has been ...

's 1994 video for "

Turn The Beat Around "Turn the Beat Around" is a disco song written by Gerald Jackson and Peter Jackson, and performed by American actress and singer Vicki Sue Robinson in 1976 (see 1976 in music), originally appearing on her debut album, '' Never Gonna Let You Go' ...

". The building is also one of many featured on the backdrop of the stage on ''

The Tonight Show ''The Tonight Show'' is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. The show has been hosted by six comedians: Steve Allen (1954–1957), Jack Paar (1957–1962), Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Jay Leno (1992–2009 and 201 ...

''. On January 1, 2010, the building was renamed the Miami Tower.

Many colors of the tower

The tower's three tiers allow it to have multiple

color scheme In color theory, a color scheme is the choice of colors used in various artistic and design contexts. For example, the "Achromatic" use of a white background with black text is an example of a basic and commonly default color scheme in web de ...

s in tribute to certain holidays and seasons. In 2012, a $1.5 million

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...

system was installed on the tower to allow for more elaborate displays with a much quicker transition time. Below are some examples of the various colors used: Image:Bankofamericawhite.jpg, Tower lit white on most nights of the year Image:Miami Tower 20101212.jpg, Tower lit red and green for Christmas Season 2010 Image:Bank of America tower in Miami Christmas 2007.jpg, Tower lit blue and decorated with snowflake lights for Christmas Seasons before 2010 Image:Miamiatnightpink.jpg, Tower lit pink for National

Breast cancer awareness month Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM), also referred to in the United States as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM), is an annual international health campaign organized by major breast cancer charities every October to increase awaren ...

Image:Bankofamericaredpurple.jpg, Tower lit red and purple for Valentine's Day 2008 Image:Miamiatnightstpatrick.jpg, Tower lit green for

Saint Patrick's Day Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick ( ga, Lá Fhéile Pádraig, lit=the Day of the Festival of Patrick), is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (), the foremost patr ...

Image:Bankofamericaeaster.png, Tower lit green and pink for

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

Image:Bankofamericayellow.jpg, Tower lit yellow on several nights of the year Image:Bankofamericaredwhiteblue.jpg, Tower lit as

American flag The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the c ...

for

American Independence Day Independence Day (colloquially the Fourth of July) is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence, which was ratified by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States ...

President's Day Presidents' Day, also called Washington's Birthday at the federal governmental level, is a holiday in the United States celebrated on the third Monday of February to honor all persons who served as presidents of the United States and, since 1879 ...

Veterans Day Veterans Day (originally known as Armistice Day) is a federal holiday in the United States observed annually on November 11, for honoring military veterans of the United States Armed Forces (who were discharged under conditions other than di ...

Image:Miamifireworks.jpg, Tower lit as American flag on 4th of July, showing

fireworks Fireworks are a class of Explosive, low explosive Pyrotechnics, pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a l ...

in foreground Image:Bank of America Tower Miami red.jpg, Tower lit red for National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims 9/25/2008 Image:Bankofamericatowercolumbus.jpg, Tower lit as

Italian flag The national flag of Italy ( it, Bandiera d'Italia, ), often referred to in Italian as ''il Tricolore'' ( en, the Tricolour, ) is a tricolour (flag), tricolour featuring three equally sized vertical Pale (heraldry), pales of green, white and red, ...

for

Columbus Day Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere, and a federal holiday in the United States, which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas on October 12, 1492. ...

Image:Bankofamericatowerpurple.jpg, Tower lit purple for

Halloween Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...

Image:Bankofamericathanksgiving.jpg, Tower lit for

Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden a ...

In popular culture

The Miami Tower is referenced in several video games and TV shows. It was featured in the opening sequence of the 1980s TV show ''

'', even being referred to as the "'Miami Vice' Tower" when it was sold. It is also depicted in the video games '' Grand Theft Auto: Vice City'' in the downtown area and in ''

DRIV3R ''Driver 3'' (stylized as ''DRIV3R'') is a 2004 action-adventure game, the third installment in the ''Driver'' series. It was developed by Reflections Interactive, published by Atari, and released on PlayStation 2, Xbox and mobile phones in Ju ...

'' with its name is changed to "The Tower At International Place". The tower appears repeatedly in multiple scenes throughout the movie ''

'' as well as in the ''

'' television series and also in a scene in the 2006 version of '' Casino Royale'' *In the

FOX Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

television series ''

Fringe Fringe may refer to: Arts * Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts festival, known as "the Fringe" * Adelaide Fringe, the world's second-largest annual arts festival * Fringe theatre, a name for alternative theatre * The Fringe, the ...

'', this building is referred to as the "Boston Federal Building".

References

External links

The Miami Tower website
*Th
Miami Tower
on Emporis.com

on the Pei, Cobb, & Freed website. {{Miami skyscrapers Skyscraper office buildings in Miami Bank of America buildings I. M. Pei buildings Office buildings completed in 1987 1987 establishments in Florida

History

Many colors of the tower

In popular culture

See also

References

External links