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This Architect Builds Oceanfront Houses for the Wealthy While Studying the Dire Effects of Rising Waters

by Rick Anderson

Max Strang is a successful Florida architect known for designing luxurious modern houses—some as big as 12,000 square feet. But he grew up in a house designed by Gene Leedy, one of the Sarasota School architects—a group known for designing modest, experimental houses in western Florida in the 1950s. Now Strang, 47, is returning to his roots: He recently moved with his family and children to Sarasota and opened an office there, hoping to revive the ethos of the Sarasota School, in which houses included such “passive” features as deep overhangs, sun-shading devices, evaporative cooling systems, and layouts that promote cross-ventilation. He is even working with Leedy, who will turn 90 next month, on adapting his courtyard house designs from the 1950s for a new era. (He expects to break ground on the first of the houses this spring.) At the same time, he has advised the City of Miami Beach on problems associated with climate change. And he recently cotaught a graduate-level architecture course on how inland Florida cities can prepare for the arrival of millions of Floridians fleeing coastal cities in the not-too-distant future.

A breezeway at the Ballast Trail Residence in the Florida Keys offers a shortcut to the pool and Atlantic Ocean beyond.

Architectural Digest: How are Miami and Miami Beach going to respond to rising waters?

Max Strang: The easy solution is dirt. We’re going to be bringing in dirt from the middle of the state. It’s going to be a race.

AD : Who will do that?

MS: Most of the burden is going to fall to individual property owners. We’ll be raising the city one lot at a time.

AD : Can people afford to elevate their property?

MS: The wealthy are already doing it. One of my clients in Fort Lauderdale spent a million dollars just on dirt and a seawall to elevate his property.

AD : That sounds crazy.

MS: If you raise it up too high, you have to have a guardrail so you don’t fall off onto your neighbor’s property. Your neighbor doesn’t want to look an ugly wall, and he doesn’t want water from your property flooding his. So it’s going to be complicated. It’s going to be messy.

The Bass Residence on Miami’s waterfront in Coconut Grove is a striking assemblage of concrete and glass.

AD : When you’re designing a new house, how do you factor in rising waters?

MS: I give clients a cross section of their house, and put dotted lines through it indicating a 1-foot sea level rise, a 2-foot sea level rise, and so on. The hope is that they’ll agree to raise the house a few feet. But there are height limitations, and in many municipalities the roof is still measured from grade. So if you raise your house too much, you’ll end up with low ceilings. Which nobody wants.

AD : So what are people ultimately going to do?

MS: Adapt or head for the hills.

The Hucker Residence in Coconut Grove appears to float above a canal leading to Biscayne Bay.

AD : Really?

MS: In the near future, millions of coastal residents will seek to move inland. There will also be millions of people still moving to Florida and electing not to live on the coast. These inland cities need to be preparing now for an enormous population increase. Orlando is going to see a huge influx. So are places like Winter Haven, Sebring, and Ocala.

AD : How’s that going to work?

MS: The focus of the course I just taught used Winter Haven as a case study on the ability of Florida’s inland cities to absorb climate refugees from the coast. Downtown Winter Haven has about 400 people living in it. What happens if that increases to 25,000 or 100,000? Meanwhile, you can buy an acre on a lake there at 175 feet above sea level for $175,000.

The San Marco Island Residence offers a panoramic view of Miami’s skyline and Biscayne Bay.

AD : And yet you’re buying a house on the beach in Sarasota?

MS: Yes, a small house built in 1953. It’s one of the last remaining Lamolithic houses. “Lamolithic” because of an innovative cooling system designed by John Lambie. The roofs are flat trays of concrete. They put crushed shell in the trays and then you flood them with water. The evaporation cools the house.

AD : Is your system still working?

MS: It’s been bastardized, but we’re going to restore it.

The RockHouse Residence in Coconut Grove was chosen by Michael Mann to depict the jungle lair of a drug lord in his film adaptation of Miami Vice.

AD : Won’t you have to retreat from the coast eventually?

MS: I want to enjoy the beach with my family while it’s still there. Maybe I’ll have to build up someday, and we’ll have a new Stiltsville.

AD : Meanwhile, you’re still building big houses. Do you encourage clients to build smaller?

MS: Yes.

AD : Do you succeed?

MS: Not often. Nine out of 10 owners want to max out their allowable square footage, either for potential resale value or because the land is so expensive to begin with. So it’s driven more by real estate than lifestyle.

The Bass Residence in Miami is raised considerably off the ground for protection against hurricane storm surges and the long-term effects of sea level rise.

AD : You’re an environmentalist who also caters to the rich. Is there an element of "do as I say, not as I do” to your practice?

MS: We’re building some one-story houses in Miami Beach—they’re modest compared to what’s around them. And the little courtyard homes that we’re proposing in the middle part of the state will aim to be “net zero,” with solar panels and passive strategies for saving energy. Generally, homes should be smaller and more sustainable.

AD : Do you feel like you’re on a mission?

MS: Mission is a cocky word. I feel like I have a role. There’s a responsibility for architects and planners to keep these issues at the forefront.

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