Standing out above a surrounding field of under-construction mixed-use towers in Downtown Miami, the Waldorf Astoria Hotel & Residences project is nearing its ultimate peak of 1,049 ft above ground. Though destined to become the state of Florida’s first “supertall” building, it isn’t the structure’s height that catches the eye. Instead, it’s the building’s dramatically irregular shape, with nine separate sections of the structure extending outward horizontally in one direction and then another, the next “volume” seemingly reversing course 180° in the opposite direction, a dance that continues all the way up the structure.

That back-and-forth appearance is the result of nine offset, glass-clad volumes that collectively aim to simulate a precariously balanced stack of nine giant glass blocks—or a Jenga tower, as some have likened the building.…