City View Garage — Miami, Florida

The prominent location of the City View Garage on the periphery of the Design District neighborhood and its adjacency to the I-195 freeway marks it as a prominent landmark. From the freeway, the western façade appears as a shimmering mirage. At street level, folded fins generate textures that echo the forms of the surrounding palms.

The surface is composed of curvilinear shapes, punched and bent out of gold-colored, titanium-coated stainless steel. From a distance, they produce a texture that mimics the shimmering patterns of light on the surface of water. The variegated pattern absorbs the qualities of the environment and disrupts the legibility of the form. From inside the garage, the wave-like shapes of the openings create a patterned view of the city. The openings in the façade were a requirement to maintain natural light and ventilation in the parking structure, however, the pattern of openings transforms this functional requirement into an iconic urban object.