Villa Regina · #2005

Villa Regina is a 31-story bayfront condominium at 1581 Brickell Avenue, completed in 1982 and designed by William Dorsky Associates as one of the original luxury towers along Brickell's Millionaires' Row. The building is best known for its facade by Israeli kinetic artist Yaacov Agam, who in 1983 wrapped Villa Regina in massive polymorphic paintings whose colors shift depending on the angle of approach -- a piece widely considered the largest exterior work of Agam's career. The Villa Regina tower delivered approximately 200 residences in one-, two-, and three-bedroom configurations, with spacious floor plans by 1980s standards, generous private terraces, formal foyers, and floor-to-ceiling sliding glass that opens onto direct Biscayne Bay exposures. Many Villa Regina units have been gut-renovated over the past decade with contemporary finishes while preserving the deep terraces and oversized layouts that newer towers no longer offer. The 1581 Brickell Avenue site sits in the southern, low-density stretch of Brickell Avenue between SE 15th and SE 16th Roads, the mature tree-lined section of Millionaires' Row closer to Coconut Grove than to Mary Brickell Village. The Rickenbacker Causeway entrance to Key Biscayne and Crandon Park is six minutes south by car, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens is a 10-minute drive south on South Miami Avenue, and Coconut Grove's CocoWalk, Regatta Park, and Dinner Key Marina are 12 minutes south on Bayshore Drive. Brickell City Centre with Saks Fifth Avenue and CMX cinema is about a mile north, Mary Brickell Village is roughly the same, and the Brickell Metrorail station is six blocks north on South Miami Avenue. Simpson Park Hammock -- one of the last surviving stands of Brickell pine rockland -- is three blocks west. Villa Regina occupies a 60,000-square-foot bayfront amenity campus that includes 43 private boat slips, a setting that no newer Brickell tower can replicate. The on-site amenity program includes a heated bayfront pool and sundeck, a private marina with deepwater slips, lighted tennis courts, a fitness center, a club room, a sauna, men's and women's locker rooms, 40,000 square feet of air-conditioned common space, and approximately 200,000 square feet of covered parking. Service includes 24-hour security, doormen, on-site management, and valet parking on request. The combination of bayfront marina, mature landscaped grounds, and oversized older-stock floor plans makes Villa Regina a distinct profile inside the modern Brickell market.