René González

"Gonzalez has lately emerged as one of Miami’s most influential young architects." –Raul A. Barreneche, the New York Times Specializing in the design of museum and gallery spaces, hospitality, commercial retail and residential projects, Miami-based Rene Gonzalez Architects also endeavors to develop solutions to rising sea levels in coastal communities. This volume compiles drawings and photographs of a residence on Prairie Avenue in Miami designed by the firm in 2018. Inspired by red mangrove trees, the dwelling hovers entirely above the ground plane. A lush garden covers most of the site and absorbs enormous quantities of water. Charles Renfro celebrates the building thus: "Is this blown-up modernism, a house made of fragments and gaps, also a new gay architecture? If so, it is but one of the many ways this compact complex house performs, one that in so many ways pulls modernism forward into a brave new world of sensuality, sexuality and lifestyle. Within it, social progress has found a new architecture."

As one of Miami’s most influential architects, Rene Gonzalez revolutionizes the way luxury buildings are equipped for climate change. Tactile, experiential, and holistic, the work of his namesake office demonstrates a belief in the inseparable connection between nature and architecture, creating spaces that are memorable and timeless. Surveying fourteen residential, commercial, and cultural projects in Florida, marking the first phase of his career, Rene Gonzalez Architects: Not Lost in Translation illustrates Gonzalez’s ability to distill the essence of place, distinguishing his work both in his home state of Florida and in the global landscape of contemporary architecture. Projects featured in the book include three Alchemist boutiques, the first of which won the 2011 National AIA Institute Honor Award; the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, whose one million glass mosaic tiles create the illusion of a jungle oasis on the exterior; the eighteen-story GLASS Residential Tower in Miami Beach; the “pocket sanctuary” that is vegan restaurant Plant Food + Wine; and the North Beach Oceanfront Center, which serves as an inviting gathering ground to the North Miami Beach community. Gonzalez is especially attuned to environmental issues that are affecting the world, and which will drastically alter design practice in the coming years. RGA is receiving widespread attention for its efforts to respond to these emerging conditions, and these projects reveal Gonzalez’s commitment to embrace and celebrate the environment, seizing the opportunity to enhance our future. Rene Gonzalez Architects: Not Lost in Translation is a deeply personal book that illustrates Gonzalez’s fascination with the world that surrounds him. Featuring a conversation with Gonzalez’s colleagues Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, essays by journalists Caroline Roux and Beth Dunlop, as well as his own photographs of Miami’s vernacular architecture, this book documents Gonzalez’s progressive and responsive architecture that is of its place yet universally resonant.