Carnegie Mellon University has just unveiled CMU Miami, a comprehensive campus planned for roughly 35 acres at 318 NW 23rd Street, the Mana Wynwood assemblage at the center of Wynwood. It arrives with the largest individual gift in the history of American higher education. Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin has pledged $3 billion, with $2 billion earmarked for the Miami campus.
The land came first. Griffin purchased roughly 30 acres from developer Moishe Mana for approximately $1.1 billion in cash, a sale that closed September 29. Mana keeps more than 15 additional acres in Wynwood, and the Mana Wynwood operations on the site continue for now. "This sale isn't the end of our vision for Wynwood," Mana said. "It's a passing of the torch and an opportunity for someone else to build on what we started."
Of the $3 billion, $2 billion goes to the Miami campus and $1 billion to Pittsburgh, including $500 million for the School of Computer Science. Griffin will also join CMU's Board of Trustees. "CMU Miami represents a generational opportunity to build a new center of research and intellectual life, one that will attract exceptional students, scholars, and researchers from across the globe," Griffin said.
The campus is planned for more than 3,500 students across undergraduate, master's, and Ph.D. programs, with roughly 300 faculty and 600 staff. There will be no traditional departments. CMU will organize CMU Miami around four societal challenges instead: human health and biological discovery, national security and strategic capabilities, energy and climate resilience, and advanced manufacturing and industry, with advanced computing integrated across all four.
CMU Miami lands in a neighborhood that is still one of Florida's most quickly-transforming corridors. The Rider Residences, a 12-story, 152-unit building from Rilea Group and Ciprés, is under construction for delivery in 2027. A few blocks of the same grid hold Twenty Sixth & 2nd Wynwood Residences, an eight-story, 233-unit mixed-use project from Property Markets Group and LNDMRK Development, also under construction and set for the second quarter of 2028.
The world's first-ever Frida Kahlo Wynwood Residences is also coming to the neighborhood. So is LivWrk Towers, a three-tower, 1,363-unit project that would reach 45 stories by 2031, along with the 49-unit DUOS Wynwood.
Just north in Wynwood Norte, Uribe Schwarzkopf's MVRDV-designed WOMA is planned for 2029. With every one of those projects being housing, CMU Miami is the first on our Wynwood record built around classrooms and labs.
Griffin's Citadel HQ still remains the centerpiece of his Miami footprint. The 52-story supertall Brickell tower, designed by Foster + Partners and developed by Citadel with Related Companies, will hold roughly 1.7 million square feet of office and retail space, helping relocate most of his staff to South Florida.