The greatest hurdles for the project team on the Aston Martin Residences came from perennial issues faced by all tall buildings in Miami—soft soils and high winds. The 69-story, 1.6-million-sq-ft tower also boasts a distinctive, curved design where no two floors are the same size or shape.

“Every floor is different,” explains Danilo Nanni, principal with structural engineer DeSimone Consulting Engineering. “This challenge was addressed by designing columns that follow the ‘silhouette’ of the tower and support the gravity, and to an extent, the wind loads.” The design of the tower—which features 391 condominiums and has a garage with 552 parking spaces—prompted several innovations, including the use of a 5-ft.-thick transfer slab at the podium to work around the garage, and a structural system with 12-ft-wide curved “mega columns” connected to a lateral load-resisting system that transfers loads to a large mat foundation 9 ft to 15 ft thick.