CUBE 3: The Architecture Firm Bringing Carlos Ott's Vision to Life at Delano Miami

Quick answer: CUBE 3, founded in 2003, is the architect of record for Delano Residences & Hotel Miami, responsible for engineering, permitting, and construction documentation, while Carlos Ott serves as the conceptual artist behind the tower's sculptural form. Miami buyer's agent Carlos Olivares explains the division of roles and what it means for buyers below.

Behind every great building is not one architect but a team, and understanding how that team is structured at Delano Residences & Hotel Miami clarifies the depth of the creative commitment behind the project.

Carlos Ott serves as the conceptual artist: the originating vision for the tower’s form. CUBE 3 is the architect of record: the firm responsible for translating that vision into a structure that can actually be built, permitted, and occupied.

Here’s what to know about CUBE 3 and why they’re the right firm for this role.

Role	Responsible for
Carlos Ott, conceptual artist	Sculptural form, proportions, aesthetic vision
CUBE 3, architect of record	Engineering, permitting, construction documentation, code compliance

Who Is CUBE 3?

CUBE 3 was founded in 2003 and has grown into one of the most active architecture and design firms in the United States. The firm works across residential, commercial, hospitality, healthcare, education, and mixed-use sectors, a range that gives them the technical and operational depth to handle a project as complex as a 90-story supertall tower.

Their approach is articulated clearly by founding partner Brian P. O’Connor: “Design should be a strategic partnership.” The firm describes itself as collaborative, optimistic, and “relentlessly service-focused”, language that reflects a practice culture where clients and creative teams work together rather than in sequence.

The Architect of Record Role

The distinction between “conceptual artist” and “architect of record” is important for buyers to understand.

Carlos Ott provides the design vision, the sculptural form, the proportions, the aesthetic DNA of the tower. His involvement creates the building’s identity.

CUBE 3 takes that vision and does the engineering, permitting, construction documentation, code compliance, and coordination with every sub-consultant, structural engineers, MEP engineers, fire protection specialists, and the construction team. They are the firm whose stamp appears on the construction documents, which makes them legally responsible for the building’s technical integrity.

In practice, this means CUBE 3 is involved at every phase of the project. They’re on site during construction, they review submittals, and they resolve the hundreds of technical questions that arise between design intent and physical reality. On a project of this scale and complexity (90 stories, mixed-use, a public observation deck, a hotel program, residential units), the architect of record’s competence is as important to the outcome as the original design vision.

The Design Vision: A Flame in the Wind

O’Connor’s description of the Delano tower is vivid and specific: “Delano Residences & Hotel draws inspiration from the fluid motion of a flame dancing in the wind. The tower is defined by a pair of soft, continuous curves that extend from the street level to the heavens, bringing warmth and motion to the Miami skyline.”

The flame metaphor explains the tower’s distinctive silhouette. Rather than the orthogonal glass box that defines much of Miami’s existing skyline, or the aggressive sculptural novelty of some contemporary supertalls, Delano’s form is organic and kinetic. It reads as something alive.

Achieving that form in a 90-story structure requires significant engineering ingenuity. Curved facades at supertall heights are structurally demanding and complex to waterproof, detail, and construct. CUBE 3’s track record in complex, high-design projects is what makes them credible for this challenge.

CUBE 3 and the Broader Design Team

CUBE 3 works in coordination with the full design team at Delano, including Carlos Ott’s conceptual framework and Meyer Davis’s interior design program. The three-way creative relationship is structured to maintain coherence between the tower’s exterior form, its structural systems, and the interior environments that residents and guests actually inhabit.

This kind of integrated design team is common at the top of the market (it’s how most major international projects are structured) but less common in Miami’s residential development landscape, where projects sometimes assemble teams for marketing value rather than genuine creative alignment. The Delano team appears to be the former.

What CUBE 3’s Involvement Means for Buyers

• Technical certainty. A firm of CUBE 3’s scale and track record has the institutional knowledge to manage a complex construction process without losing design quality in execution. The gap between an architectural rendering and a finished building is where many projects disappoint. CUBE 3’s hands-on involvement through construction is a mitigant.
• Code compliance and permitting. A 90-story mixed-use tower in downtown Miami involves multiple regulatory bodies, complex zoning considerations, and extensive permitting requirements. CUBE 3’s experience in exactly these project types means the process has been managed professionally from the start.
• Long-term building quality. The technical decisions made during design documentation (facade systems, structural details, waterproofing approaches, MEP routing) determine how a building performs over decades. These are CUBE 3’s decisions, and they’re made with the understanding that their reputation depends on buildings that perform well long after delivery.

See the full story of Carlos Ott’s design vision or Meyer Davis’s interiors for the rest of the creative team.