Médano by Viñoly: Oceanfront Uruguay, the Final Rafael Viñoly Design
An evening in New York for investors, founders and business owners. Rafael Viñoly, the architect of 432 Park Avenue, designed Médano as his final project: around 128 beachfront residences on the only site in Greater Montevideo that no road separates from the sand. The people behind it have invested their own capital. We cover why Uruguay, why this site, and how a purchase can support Uruguayan tax residency. Open networking follows.
Free to attend · Limited to 25 guests · Strictly by RSVP
- Date
- Tuesday 29 September 2026
- Doors from 6:00pm
- Time
- 6:00pm – 9:30pm
- Presentation at 6:30pm
- Location
- New York
- Venue confirmed on RSVP
- Places
- 25 guests
- Allocated first come, first served
A world-class architect, an irreplaceable site, a market still early.
Uruguay is one of South America's quieter success stories: politically stable, open to foreign buyers, and dollar-denominated at the top of its property market. Its oceanfront around Montevideo has barely begun to attract international capital in the way comparable coastlines already have.
Médano sits right at that point. It is the last building designed by Rafael Viñoly, whose skyline-defining work includes 432 Park Avenue. It stands on a 6.5-hectare plot behind the dunes, the only property in all of Greater Montevideo with direct beach access, 15 minutes from the international airport. Construction has been underway since July 2025.
This evening is a clear account of the opportunity, the residences and the numbers. Free to attend, no obligation, 25 seats.
Why Uruguay, and why now
Buyers who have looked at Uruguay tend to come back to the same four reasons.
Stability that is rare in the region
A long-standing democracy with strong institutions and an investment-grade sovereign rating, and a reputation in Latin America for predictability.
Foreigners own on equal terms
There are no restrictions on foreign ownership of residential property. International buyers hold full title, just as Uruguayan citizens do.
A dollar-denominated market
High-end property in Uruguay is typically priced and transacted in US dollars, and capital moves freely in and out of the country.
Scarce oceanfront supply
Beachfront land close to the capital is finite and heavily protected. Most of the coastline around Montevideo is cut off from the sand by the coastal road.
The capstone of a 58-year career
Rafael Viñoly completed more than 600 buildings across the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. His work ranged from concert halls, museums and courthouses to airports, stadiums and research campuses. He was a member of the American Institute of Architects and an International Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and won numerous awards for design excellence.
Médano is the last project he designed. Its completion is the final chapter of his architectural legacy, and it is in his home country, Uruguay.
Selected works
- 432 Park AvenueNew York
- Tokyo International ForumTokyo
- Carrasco International AirportMontevideo
- The Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland
- The Rockefeller University River CampusNew York
- Laguna Garzón BridgeRocha, Uruguay
The only property in Greater Montevideo with direct beach access
Everywhere else along the capital's coastline, a road runs between the buildings and the beach. Médano sits directly behind the dunes, with 550 metres of ocean frontage to the south and a large lagoon to the north, at the edge of a quiet low-rise neighbourhood.
The long, low building follows the land. It is designed to be invisible from the beach, so the setting that makes the site valuable stays intact.
- 15min
- Carrasco International Airport
- 15min
- Carrasco
- 24min
- Montevideo Shopping
- 34min
- Ciudad Vieja, Montevideo
Architecture that disappears into the dunes
The building runs 425 metres along the coast in planted terraces, with 10,800 m² of habitable green roofs. The images below are renderings of the finished project.
The people who built it have invested in it
Médano is being developed by Integrated Developments, co-founded by Rafael and Román Viñoly. It is the firm's second project in Uruguay. The developers and their partners have put their own capital into the project, so they are investing alongside the buyers.
The firm handles every stage of development in-house: design, construction, sales and property management. It works to a long investment horizon, operationally and financially, and it continues to manage the buildings it creates so they improve over time rather than being sold and left behind.
The project in numbers
- 6.5 ha
- Waterfront site
- 550 m
- Of coastal frontage
- ~128
- Residences, 1–5 bedrooms
- ~$100M
- Project cost
- July 2025
- Construction started
- 2028
- Projected completion
The residences
Around 128 homes of one to five bedrooms: Lagoon, Forest and Sea residences, plus a collection of penthouses. The service of a high-end building, with the privacy of a house.
No apartment sits on top of another
The terraced building means every home is acoustically and visually separate. Each one lives more like a free-standing house than an apartment.
Large private gardens
Almost every residence has a generous open-air garden, looking south to the ocean or north over the lagoon.
Drive to your front door
There is no lobby. South-facing homes have private parking or enclosed garages alongside, and north-facing homes have covered parking within 30 metres.
Fully serviced, turn-key
Full-time concierge, security, gardening and maintenance staff. Residences are delivered ready to live in.
Amenities
- 165-metre outdoor pool and solarium
- 25-metre indoor lap pool
- Sauna and Turkish bath
- Gym and yoga studio
- Screening room
- Business centre
- Kids’ and teens’ areas
- Serviced beach access
- 12,000 m² lagoon
- Pet care facilities
Built to cost less to own
- 75%
- Lower household energy costs, from on-site solar generation
- 50%
- Lower common charges than the local market, from operating at scale
Médano aims to be the region's first Nearly Zero Energy Building, with a carbon-neutral target. It uses a locally sourced mass-timber structure and 5,500 m² of rooftop solar that supplies close to all of the building's estimated energy use, plus rainwater recapture and an EV charger for every residence.
A route to Uruguayan tax residency from around US$510,000
Uruguay recognises tax residency for people who hold a substantial property investment in the country, without requiring them to live there most of the year. For many international buyers, this makes a qualifying home here worth more than the property alone.
The qualifying conditions
- 01
Buy Uruguayan real estate worth more than 3.5 million Indexed Units (UI). That is approximately US$510,000, and the dollar figure moves with the exchange rate.
- 02
Spend at least 60 days a year in Uruguay.
- 03
The purchase must have been made on or after 1 July 2020 (Decree 163/020).
Tax residency and immigration residency are separate. The route above does not in itself grant a residence permit, and the enhanced tax holiday on foreign income has its own, higher thresholds. We will go through how each one works on the night. Take independent tax and legal advice before you rely on either.
The room itself
From 7:00pm the floor is open. We keep the presentation short because the more valuable part of an evening like this is usually the two hours after it.
Expect a curated group of investors, founders and business owners in New York: people running real companies and deploying real capital. No badges-and-lanyards circuit, no pitch queue.
Wine and canapés are on us. There is no cost to attend and nothing to buy on the night.
The evening
- 6:00pm
Welcome drinks & registration
Arrive, collect your badge and meet the room over a drink.
- 6:30pm
Médano by Viñoly — briefing
A short, direct presentation on Uruguay as a place to hold capital, the Médano site and architecture, the residences available, and how a purchase can support Uruguayan tax residency.
- 7:00pm
Open networking, wine & canapés
The rest of the evening is yours — with our team and a room of fellow investors, founders and business owners.
Carriages at 9:30pm. Smart casual — there is no dress code to worry about.
25 places. Please register early.
We are keeping this evening small on purpose — a room where the conversation is worth having is a room where everyone can actually speak to everyone. Once the 25 places are taken we will close registration and start a waiting list.
- When
- Tuesday 29 September 2026, 6:00pm – 9:30pm
- Where
- New York
- We are finalising a private venue in Manhattan. The full address is sent to you by email as soon as it is confirmed, and in good time before the evening.
- Cost
- Free to attend, including refreshments. Nothing is sold on the night.
Reserve your place
Limited to 25 guests. Tell us where to send your confirmation and the venue address.
Hosted by The Entrepreneur Institute
This page is an invitation to an information event. It is not financial, tax, legal or immigration advice, not a personal recommendation, and not an offer to sell property or securities. Images are architectural renderings and may differ from the completed development. Project details, specifications, timelines and figures are supplied by the developer, Integrated Developments, and may change. Construction projects carry risk, including delay. Uruguayan tax residency rules, investment thresholds (set in Indexed Units, so the US dollar equivalent varies) and presence requirements are set by the Uruguayan authorities, can change at any time, and depend on individual circumstances; no residency or tax outcome can be guaranteed. Property values can fall as well as rise, and currency movements can work against you. Please take your own independent legal, tax and immigration advice before making any investment.