The extravagant design proposal for the mammoth Miami gambling resort that would replace the soon-to-be-departed Miami Herald building on Biscayne Bay is inspired by a coral reef, its architect says.

If so, call it Sponge Bob Meets the Jetsons.

The proposed Malaysian-owned Genting resort would cover more than 10 acres with a futuristic, eight-story platform of undulating concrete and glass containing dozens of shops, restaurants, a colossal gambling floor and extensive kitchens. Atop it would sit an artificial outdoor lagoon and sand beach that starts near Biscayne Boulevard, spans North Bayshore Drive and ends in an infinity edge overlooking the bay.

At each of four corners, overlooking the lagoon, would stand 65-story hotel towers whose irregular, biomorphic shapes are taken from coral formations and the sea life that inhabits them.

Nowhere is there a straight line or sharp corner, except for the legally protected, historic Art Deco Boulevard Shops on Biscayne, which would be renovated and stand alone.

“It took all of two meetings to decide on this,’’ said Genting Group Chairman and Chief Executive KT Lim. “The more we look at it, the more we like it. It will be the face of Miami.’’

Lim said his group was looking for an “iconic design’’ that would lure visitors to Miami. “We feel it could be a transformational thing.’’

That’s exactly the message architect Bernardo Fort-Brescia wants to send.

Fort-Brescia is a principal with Miami-based Arquitectonica, which designed the master plan and every structure that would sit on the site. The globe-spanning firm is responsible for numerous iconic buildings in its hometown, including American Airlines Arena and Atlantis, the 1980s Brickell condo with the hole and the palm tree in the middle.

“It’s very different from anything we’ve done before,’’ said Fort-Brescia, an enthusiastic scuba diver. “In fact, it’s very different from anything else in Miami. It’s very soft and organic.”

Genting wanted open space and a resort feeling on the 14-acre site, he said.

“It’s an unusually large site. So we had the space and the freedom to be very sculptural.’’

And that’s just the main piece of the project, which also comprises a second, connected component behind the Boulevard Shops as well as a possible mega-yacht marina on the bay.

The hyper-ambitious plan, if approved by the city of Miami, would represent an exponential leap for development in South Florida in terms of scope, complexity and sheer spectacle. It would import a type of massively scaled, mixed-use multi-block project common in Asian mega-cities like Hong Kong and Singapore but heretofore unseen in America outside of New York City.

And though it would not be the first such prototype in Miami — that honor belongs to Arquitectonica’s recently approved plan for a mixed-use megacomplex for Hong Kong-based developer Swire Properties on 10 acres west of Brickell Avenue — Genting’s seems even more audacious.

In addition to the main resort, casino and shopping mall, two residential towers would rise behind the Boulevard Shops. Those towers would be joined to the rest of the resort by a continuation of the elevated platform and lagoon that would narrow and vault over North Bay- shore Drive. That western portion of the project would also contain a two-story conference center.