Downtown Miami – the new Second City?

Is the 305 passing 312? New construction data from McGraw-Hill Dodge on high-rises in the U.S. contained an interesting nugget of information – from 2000 to 2011, there were more projects for buildings of 20 or more stories in Miami than Chicago.

Traditionally, Chicago has ranked second only behind New York City in high-rise construction, but in the new millennium, Miami’s 145 high-rise projects beat out Chicago’s 120, though both lag far behind New York’s 331.

Some other comparisons with Chicago from McGraw-Hill Dodge:

• When it came to the tallest buildings, Miami could not touch New York and Chicago, which made up the top five. Chicago’s Trump Tower and Aqua buildings, at 98 and 86 stories, were the no. two and three tallest, while three of New York City’s pending World Trade Center towers – 1, 3 and 2  – made up the rest of the list, respectively ranking no. one, four and five with 104, 80 and 79 stories.
• Other metropolitan areas with considerable high-rise construction included Las Vegas (47 developments), San Diego (31), Seattle (31) and Dallas (22).
• Of the nation’s high-rise buildings, 71 percent were for multifamily purposes, 13 percent for hotels, 11 percent for offices and then 1 percent each for dormitories, education, recreation, healthcare and retail.

So what do you make of Miami’s sudden entrance in the tall buildings department? Is it a product of boom-era construction projects, or does it signal that Miami is inching toward recovery by building more, or that it is trying for the architectural presence of a New York, Chicago and Los Angeles?