Renzo Piano Building Workshop is set to begin work on a glass-sheathed tower in Miami Beach that will be the firm’s first residential project in the United States. ‘Eighty Seven Park’ will sit between parkland and the Atlantic Ocean in Miami’s North Beach district.

Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning  architect Renzo Piano, the glass tower will feature oblong floors and wrap-around balconies.A shallow pool of water will surround the base of the 17-storey building, which will host 70 apartments ranging in size from 130 to 650 square metres. Two swimming pools flanked by sundecks will sit between the base of the tower and the shoreline. A long walkway between the two rectangular pools will lead to the beach.

The interiors of the building, which are expected to be completed in 2018, have been designed by the Parisian firm Rena Dumas Architecture Interieure and will feature American oak and Italian stone fittings.

A lobby with separate residents and valet entrances will occupy the ground floor of the building, which will be festooned with orchids, bonsai trees and cacti by the in-house botanist in an all-year-round floral display intended to give the space the appearance of an orangery.