Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. received approval from the Miami-Dade Tourism and Ports Committee on Monday to build a new office and parking garage on the land at the southwest corner of Dodge Island next to where its older offices sit now. The new campus would expand the company’s workforce capacity from 2,200 to 4,200.
The designs for the new buildings by New York architecture firm HOK give employees the view.
The 10-story, 350,000-square-foot office building, planned for the company’s current parking lot, would incorporate floor-to-ceiling windows. Parking will be housed in a new garage.
Royal Caribbean’s giant crown logo will be emblazoned on the roof to catch the eyes of airline passengers overhead. The design for the adjacent parking garage mirrors the office building. The garage also will hold a fitness center and a soccer field with a running track on top. The concrete and asphalt between the buildings is to be replaced by grass and trees.
"The big inspiration to us was the way that the balconies step at the stern of the ship," Architect Kenneth Drucker of HOK said. "We wanted it to be very fluid and iconic on the waterfront."
"The big inspiration to us was the way that the balconies step at the stern of the ship," he said. "We wanted it to be very fluid and iconic on the waterfront."
Royal Caribbean plans to spend at least $300 million on the project. The company hopes to have the new buildings finished by October 2020 and the renovations on the old buildings completed by fall of 2021.
Matt Hochberg
Matt loves to cruise, and started Cruise.Blog as a place to share different cruise experiences, advice, and what to know before going on a cruise.
He lives in Florida with his wife and two daughters, where he can be found on any given day trying to convince his wife they "need" to book another cruise.
