Dozens of luxury high-rise apartments and hotels along Miami’s waterfront are sinking faster than expected
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Approximately 70 percent of the buildings in the city’s north and central Sunny Isles are affected, according to the University of Miami. Miami is sinking. Approximately 70 percent of the buildings in the city's north and central Sunny Isles are affected, according to the University of Miami, which produced the report.
![[Rescue personnel work at the remains of the Champlain Towers South condo building, June 25, 2021, in Surfside, Florida]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/09/07/18/Building_Collapse_Miami_52105.jpg)
Researchers who published the study identified 35 buildings that have reportedly sunk by up to three inches between 2016 and 2023. Some iconic Miami landmarks are on the list of 35 affected buildings; the Faena Hotel, the Porche Design Tower, the Surf Club Towers, Trump Tower II, Trump International Beach Resorts, and the Ritz-Carlton Residences. are all among the sinking structures.
The study's senior author, University of Miami's Falk Amelung, told the Miami Herald that virtually all of the buildings constructed along the coast of Miami's outer barrier islands are sinking. The impetus for the study was actually a response to the tragic 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers in Surfside, which killed 98 people and lit a fire for stronger structural reviews for apartments and condos across the state.
The researchers used satellite data that could measure minor changes in ground sinkage — subsidence — over time and found that subsidence was not the cause of the Champlain Towers collapse. While they found no evidence of subsidence there, they did fight plenty of evidence all along Miami's coastline.
Amelung told the Miami Herald that they found evidence of subsidence between 0.8 inches and just over three inches, primarily in Sunny Isles Beach, Surfside, and at two buildings in Miami Beach — the Faena Hotel and L'Atelier condo. They found another instance in Bal Harbour.
