An architect who designs homes for the wealthy built a Miami Beach mansion on a 13-foot platform to protect it from the risk of rising ocean levels. Here's a look inside the $27 million home.
Miami could be partially underwater and unlivable within 80 years, science indicates.
Miami and Miami Beach already struggle with serious flooding related to sea-level rise, even when there is no rain. The flat, low-lying areas are surrounded by rising seas, and the ground underneath is mostly porous limestone, which means water will eventually rise through it.
But despite the bleak predictions, wealthy buyers are still snapping up luxury waterfront real estate.
One architect, Max Strang, designs oceanfront homes for the wealthy with rising sea levels in mind.
One of Strang's recent creations is a Miami Beach mansion that sits on an elevated platform and stilts with the first floor 13 feet above sea level.
Strang told Architectural Digest in 2018 that the solution to rising waters in Miami is to build elevated homes — and that responsibility is on individual homeowners.
"The wealthy are already doing it," Strang told the publication. "One of my clients in Fort Lauderdale spent a million dollars just on dirt and a seawall to elevate his property."
Strang's newest design just hit the market for $27 million, Douglas Elliman exclusively told Business Insider.
It sits in the gated Sunset Islands community in Miami Beach.
The home has 12,700 square feet of interior living space.
The Italian developer, Valerio Morabito, tapped Michele Bonan as the interior designer.
The primary building materials are teakwood, glass and stone.
Floor-to-ceiling windows let in the Florida sunshine.
The home has seven bedrooms ...
... as well as seven bathrooms and three powder rooms.
The home comes with more than $1 million worth of furniture designed by Bonan, the interior designer, according to Douglas Elliman.
Outside is a private 78-foot swimming pool.
There are two cabanas by the pool.
A teak deck overlooks the more than 150 feet of private waterfront.
The home mixes Italian vintage with new modern styles, according to publicity materials.
The open living area overlooks the canal.
The Miami Beach home comes with a wine cave, a gym ...
... and an elevator. Staff quarters, a four-car garage, a game room, and home theater sit underneath the first-floor platform.
The architect says more homes should be built like this elevated Miami Beach home to prepare for rising sea levels.
When designing a new house, Strang shows his clients a cross-section of their house and puts dotted lines through it indicating a one-foot sea-level rise, a two-foot rise, etc, he told Architectural Digest.
"The hope is that they'll agree to raise the house a few feet," Strang said. But with city-mandated height restrictions, that would mean having low ceilings, which "nobody wants," he added.
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