Miami Beach is being graced with a building by architect Jean Nouvel. The Monad Terrace is currently under construction. Nouvel ‘s design aims for visitors to enjoy the depth of views and textures of light. He describes the Monad as “A kind of alchemy between the water and the vegetation … between the wind and the air. So we have to play with all the local parameters. We are alone with the water on one side and the boats are alone with the vision of the ocean - but you never see the neighbors. It’s total privacy. The skin of the building is like fish skin and you have the reflection of the facade in the water. The light of the building is a reflection in the sea.”
Nouvel was awarded the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest honor, in 2008, for his work on more than 200 projects, among them, in the words of The New York Times, the "exotically louvered" Arab World Institute, the bullet-shaped and "candy-colored" Torre Agbar in Barcelona, the "muscular" Guthrie Theater with its cantilevered bridge in Minneapolis, and in Paris, the "defiant, mysterious and wildly eccentric" Musée du quai Branly (2006) and the Philharmonie de Paris (a "trip into the unknown" c. 2012). Pritzker points to several more major works: in Europe, the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art (1994), the Culture and Convention Center in Lucerne (2000), the Opéra Nouvel in Lyon (1993), Expo 2002 in Switzerland and, under construction, the Copenhagen Concert Hall and the courthouse in Nantes (2000); as well as two tall towers in planning in North America, Tour Verre in New York City and a cancelled condominium tower in Los Angeles.
In its citation, the jury of the Pritzker prize noted: “Of the many phrases that might be used to describe the career of architect Jean Nouvel, foremost are those that emphasize his courageous pursuit of new ideas and his challenge of accepted norms in order to stretch the boundaries of the field. The jury acknowledged the 'persistence, imagination, exuberance, and, above all, an insatiable urge for creative experimentation' as qualities abundant in Nouvel's work.”
The Monad will be composed of 59 bayfront condominiums and are starting at $1.7 Million.