Inside the ‘Bentley’ of luxury residential towers, opening in Miami

Jacqui Palumbo, CNN

The coastline of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, will be getting a new addition in 2026: the sparkling exterior of Bentley Motors’ first residential building, rising above a skyline full of luxury condos and hotels.

At approximately 749 feet tall, Bentley Residences is currently set to be the tallest US oceanfront building, according to a spokesperson for the project. Designed by Sieger Suarez Architects, which is also delivering the forthcoming Waldorf Astoria Residences Miami, the 63-story building will feature 216 units with sweeping ocean views, a slew of amenities, and an elevator designed to take residents up to their doorstep while seated inside their cars.

“People buy single-family homes so they can have their car parked in their garage, so they can get up and walk into their unit,” said the architecture firm’s president, Charles Sieger, in a video call. “You really can’t do that with high-rises. So we’re trying to break that mold.”

The “Dezervator” — the patented vehicular elevator system named after the building’s developer Dezer Development — first appeared in the nearby Porsche Design Tower, which was also designed by Sieger Suarez Architects.

The four lifts, which rise at 800 feet per minute, each feature a hydraulic system that uses RFID tags to automatically load each vehicle onto the elevator — with the driver and passengers inside — and then directly to their floor.

At first, Sieger said, they thought the elevator ride would feel like a roller coaster due to the speed, but that wasn’t the case when he tried it himself. “It was actually disappointing because you’re sitting in a comfortable car… and you hardly even sense you’re moving that quick.” he added.

Translating automobiles to homes

In many ways, the Porsche Design Tower, which opened in 2016, laid the blueprint for this project, Sieger said. Both adapt the finer aesthetic details of the brand’s vehicles to residential complexes and aim to replicate the benefits of single-family homes in a sky-high tower, from ample private outdoor space to in-unit garages. In Bentley Residences, each apartment’s “garage” has room for up to four cars, as well as electric-vehicle charging capabilities.

The design of the building itself takes inspiration from the recessed diamond patterning in the car interiors, with the tower’s exterior made of reflective glass triangle panels that mimic the diamond shape, each one set 3 inches deep. (The panels will all face different directions, Sieger pointed out, to avoid the scorching effect of the reflective glass on London’s “Walkie Talkie” skyscraper, which melted some parts of cars before it was fitted with shading to deflect the sun).

Meanwhile the condo’s interiors also nod to Bentley’s distinctive style. The grippy texture of the cars’ metal shift knobs, for instance, are applied to bathroom faucets, while deep walnut shades, high-polish finishes and textured leathers are used throughout the property.

“A lot of it has to do with bringing the nature of the finished materials that they use in the cars, scaling them differently,” Sieger said of adapting the brand aesthetic. (Bentley has already experimented in the interior design space, with its own home furnishings line).

While shared amenities cover a sprawling 20,000 square feet and include restaurants, bars, a fitness center, spa, game room and movie theater — with seats resembling a Bentley car interior — each condo has plenty of creature comforts, too. There’s a sauna in the master bathroom, Atlantic-ocean views, and a massive balcony space that includes a private heated swimming pool and outdoor kitchen.

“Most apartments don’t have balconies that are particularly usable,” Sieger said, noting that, in this case, some of the outdoor spaces are “about half the size of the unit.” It’s also partially enclosed by glass to help keep the wind out even at the highest floors.

Though the building won’t welcome residents for another three years, the units are already being sold, with prices currently starting at $5.25 million, and two penthouses priced at over $30 million each (or around $60 million as one combined unit). Construction is expected to start this spring.

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