FORMGROUP, a full-service architecture, planning and interior design firm and a trailblazer in the field of green building design, has been commissioned by prominent international communications company CIMA Telecom to design its corporate headquarters in City of Miami. CIMA Corporate Center, a 24-000 square foot office building, is currently under construction and expected to be completed in December 2009.
Located at 1728 Coral Way, the nine-story building features the latest technology while incorporating an environmental responsible design. The project is currently pursuing a “Gold” LEED New Construction pre-certification from the US Green Building Council. CIMA Corporate Center combines exemplary performance in energy management, indoor environmental quality, water efficiency and the use of eco-friendly materials.
The building incorporates a variety of smart design and sustainable strategies such as usage of solar power, which generates up to 25 percent of the building’s energy needs, occupancy and O2 sensors in all office areas, light sensitive automated window shades, minimal water demand plumbing fixtures and recycled composite cement flooring. Also, the building has been oriented to face North, taking advantage of the tree canopy on Coral Way to reduced solar exposure.
“I admire this company for valuing the building’s ‘life cost’ over its construction cost,” said Omar Morales, president and principal architect for FORMGROUP. “Construction costs are a short term investment while the expenditures to make the building energy efficient will result in much lower costs over the long term.”
The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. On the five-tier USGBC scale, Gold is the second-highest level attainable. CIMA Corporate Center was formally registered with the USGBC on January 15, 2009. Pre-certification is granted to projects after USGBC has reviewed a summary of early design stage submittal material.
FORMGROUP specializes in sustainable, green design and has a 10-year history of delivering innovative residential, multifamily, commercial and industrial projects to the South Florida marketplace. Other local projects FORMGROUP is working on include El Prado at Old Spanish Village, a $350 million mixed-use development in Coral Gables and East Coast Eateries, a 30,000 square-foot entertainment and dining complex to be positioned along the edge of the historic Miami River.