President and COO of TWENTY TWO GROUP Cole Haynes is known for his vision and ambitious construction projects, and his dedication to creating the best of the best in luxury residential and commercial markets has helped him build the Group to where it is today. Check out our exclusive interview below.
Tell us a little bit about TWENTY TWO GROUP’s history and what your company does best!
TWENTY TWO GROUP was created on Super Bowl Sunday of 2011 (exactly 22 years to the day that I moved to Miami Beach, which occurred on Super Bowl Sunday 1989). I was lucky enough to pioneer the renovation and repositioning of South Beach by being personally involved with the Robins Brothers in the development/construction of many great projects: To name a few, The Marlin Hotel, The Hotel Webster, The Tides, The Netherland, The News Café, The Van Dyke, The New World Symphony Building and the Blank Family Residence. This incredible experience and effort laid the foundation for TWENTY TWO GROUP’s future custom builds in the residential & commercial sectors.
Our company is BEST at integrating the details of extremely complicated, forward-thinking custom construction projects by understanding the constructability of the intended design from the onset of the process through an extraordinary finished product. In short, we are founded in principal on the inherent understanding of how to execute construction for extremely complex designs while maintaining complete awareness of budgets and schedules.
I noticed that TWENTY TWO GROUP has had plenty of celebrity clients– What are some of your most notable projects?
Personally, I have great memories of building for Madonna on a “handshake” basis and working with Michael Bay on his bar at his Miami Beach home. Recently, we completed a project with ZAHA HADID, which is a major milestone for our group. In the little moments within a project, I find the greatest stories can often unfold.
What kinds of challenges did you face while completing them?
Fitted details of high line design where constructability and execution are key always pose a great challenge for us. By balancing difficult schedules while remaining sensitive to budgets, TWENTY TWO GROUP consistently overcomes these challenges project after project.
What recent projects are you most proud of?
For quality of detail, Christian Louboutin for Men in the Design District is a very proud achievement and a little jewel within our Design District community. For scale, our recently completed +/- 25,000 SF Design Within Reach San Francisco makes me very proud of our GROUP’s ability to cross boundaries throughout the United States while still delivering a quality project on schedule and budget without compromise to our main goal: an exceptional client experience. In residential, we were just awarded a landmark estate residence on the beachfront of the Atlantic Ocean with renowned architect Rene Gonzalez and his team. Lastly, we are starting a new build in the Design District of the Tiffany & Company Flagship, which will also prove to be another proud landmark in our GROUP’s portfolio, as well as within the Design District.
What about them really exemplifies the goals/mission of TWENTY TWO GROUP?
Our goal is to build exceptionally exciting projects that focus on details that are unique and surprisingly pleasing to the eye, which translates nicely to our mission to build relevant projects that universally stand the test of time in form and function.
Tell us about your success with the Garden Building and its Gold LEED certification (congrats)!
This project was the first of its kind in the Design District and set the standard for LEED achievement in the neighborhood. It was challenging and at the same time very refreshing to build with a conscience that is often overlooked in our neighborhoods and developments today. Working with Terry Riley and his team was also of equal reward.
Does TWENTY TWO GROUP aspire to create more green buildings in the future?
We do aspire to build more green structures, but more importantly we aspire to standardize green building as a normal means and method of building in the foreseeable future. Is this a specialty of yours? In the spirit of the aforementioned answer, we strive to make this specialty simply a higher understanding of the collective process and we are VERY PROUD to be one of the leaders in this movement of building GREEN awareness.
What do you find most attractive about green architecture, and do you feel this is a trend that’s here to stay?
Most attractive is the sensitivity and relevant understanding of our planet as a whole. The trend to LIVE GREEN originated since men and women started building their lives (i.e. people historically used the products within their surrounding areas where sustainability was a way of life), yet over the years large, ill-conceived developments and misappropriated extraction of resources took a BIG TURN for the worse, which has left our planet and our communities in a stressed state. I believe sustainable products (inclusive of forward-thinking construction and developments) are here to stay because we as a world community must now make the best use of our remaining resources if we are to sustain ourselves and our futures.
What kind of project would you like to tackle that you haven’t tried yet?
I’d love for our GROUP to build custom homes in unique locations for specialty clients around the world. I’m also very excited about our current international roll out over the coming years for one of our favorite retail clients. This look-ahead effort will lead our GROUP into some great building experiences throughout North America and abroad...
To learn more about TWENTY TWO GROUP, visit their company website here.
