The Water Will Come, but Not to This Miami Home

That's where our health care dollars and tax cuts go. But who is going to clean their house and work in their businesses for minimum wager when the area is flooded?

"Mr. Pérez, one of South Florida’s largest condo developers, was more skeptical. Asked by Mr. Goodell if sea-level rise had altered his business thinking, he replied curtly that it hadn’t. Pressed, Mr. Pérez said, “In 20 or 30 years, someone is going to find a solution for this.” He added, “Besides, by that time, I’ll be dead, so what does it matter." Just tossing this out there, but maybe it matters to the people who are buying your condos? Unbelievable.

It seems there are always a few readers who feel the need to react with sarcasm to articles such as this, complaining bitterly that not everyone can afford such a home. Of course we cannot all afford everything we see, but that does not detract from the beauty and smart design of this house. Do we really have to be able to afford a thing to appreciate it?

Sounds like he does not live a carbon neutral existence, no? Did you say where all his money comes from? As a member of the uber-rich he must have government subsidized hurricane insurance planning for the huge storm that will eventually arrive. So what does he care? He is just gambling that he too will be dead before the big one comes.

My thoughts echo those of other commenters. It’ll be awesome someday after Miami is no longer accessible by car. I guess the idea is this guy can come and go as he pleases and is likely not to be in Miami when the storm surge floods the rest of the city. But I guess, architecturally-speaking, this is “neat”.

all that & its so cozy & livable!

I can see why he didn't bother with installing windows. Located his house on google maps - houses almost on top of each other; major street intersection close by; a convention center across the street; a high school right down the street .... There is no view of anything as far as I could tell. Not my cup of tea I'm afraid...

Mr. Boutros' approach is perhaps slightly more far-sighted than building at ground level in Miami Beach (if that is even legal to do -- I am not sure it is). But it is hardly a solution to the longer-term problem. If he lasts longer than others, he will be flushing his toilet into Biscayne Bay. The comparison to the Seminoles is not apt. They thought of their houses as temporary and understood that they could be built and rebuilt. The underlying problem for many coastal homeowners is the financial and emotional investment they make in their houses. Mr. Boutros is clearly proud of his very expensive home, and rightly so in the sense that it is new and pretty. But the owner of an RV on the site would be more sensitive to climate change issues, and more like a Modern Seminole, than Mr. Boutros.

It's smart and expensive to build for floods but once sea levels rise forever... it's game, set match - sea.

Disturbing to see that the owner made his money in health care. Your dollars at work.

Enjoy your beautiful home and if you are not using it during the week, I'd be more than happy to be your guest.

Nothing that new here. Most new beachfront construction has been on stilts for the last 30 years on the Carolina coast. Storm surge from a hurricane is a given.

sure do wish I could afford to "live like the Seminoles". I forget, when the hurricanes hit did they repair themselves to Paris or Vienna?

A "health care" executive from Detroit takes his "retractable automated stairway that connects a 9,400-square-foot open-air gated tropical garden and parking area" up to his three-bedroom South Beach second home...and we wonder why the cost of health care is out of control in the USA...

Big bucks, whistling in the dark.

How nice for Mr. Boutros. But in the end, the ocean will have its way with his house.

The house is undeniably cool, but presents, unfortunately, one clear example for why the wealthy will be less affected by impacts of global warming than others. Jetting from Michigan to Florida for weekends is exacerbating the issue, unless he's got an electric plane charged from renewables. (NASA's developing electric and natural-gas/hybrid planes, but not here yet). But the poor will be dealing with flooding, with rising insurance rates and taxes as it becomes likely that Southern Florida will need to adopt desalination as rising seas penetrate farther into porous limestone under the state, and with the other services as noted in David Appell's comment. Sea-level infrastructure doesn't maintain itself, and salt-water corrosion or wave damage don't undo themselves as each decades tides run higher. The NYC area's transportation tunnels proved that after Sandy. The article notes that the $500 million initial investment in South Florida includes pumps (for the increasingly common clear-sky flooding) and for raising roadbeds, but whoops - raising a road drops the water into the unraised stores, offices, homes along the road. The wealthy can built beautiful structures to let them enjoy the last moments of cities at risk - but like the wealthy folks who simply defaulted on mortgages during the economic crash a decade ago, they often can also afford to simply walk away from their property when costs exceed their pleasure in it.

Speaking of flooded cars, I think it was Wilma whose storm serge flooded the middle keys and a few of the elevated homes survived the flood but subsequently were destroyed by fire. The fires were caused by cars and golf carts parked under the houses when electric circuits were shorted out by the rising salt water. Nice house though and nice to share it during Irma!

Elevated houses are common here in New Orleans. The beautiful house presented here is elevated 10. Katrina missed New Orleans proper, but the storm surge was still 18 feet. Add a few feet for sea level rise, and he needed 20’ of life. South Beach is not going to survive, and neither is this home...

Yes, great idea, I’m sure everyone can afford one of these. They will probably provide tax breaks so regular working people can buy them. This is just wonderful.

May I first of all say that I absolutely LOVE this home, so elegant and yet so utilitarian. And I also sincerely appreciate the intelligence behind its design and they way it seeks to work with the curve of the earth and the sea. In a much more modest way I have seen "houses of stilts" in many parts of the world which raises the homes from rising seas and waters. Recently I visited Lake Tonle Sap in Cambodia where house boats and houses on stilts proliferate. I love this (necessary) adaptation.

The house looks beautiful to me and the owner sounds gracious and kind. We will have to learn to manage living in the climate that we are damaging and this certainly is not in everyone's budget.

I lived in Houston for 45 yrs and joked, “I’d have flood insurance if I lived in a penthouse of a high rise.” One man laughed really hard at my quip. “I live in a high rise! And both my cars flooded in the parking garage.”

Ah, yes, to live like the Seminoles! I can't recall, did the Seminoles use diesel or natural gas powered generators?

As Miami Beach goes underwater and the place is slowly abandoned, what will Mr. Boutros do for utilities - water (especially), electricity, fuel for his generator, garbage pickup? What happens to his home’s foundation as the sea drags and shifts this barrier island’s land? It will be impractical to live there long before Miami Beach is totally swamped.