The parking garage is generally a utilitarian affair. Like the cars they house, parking garages are generally seen as necessary evils, blights on the urban landscape that are better left in the background. There is one city, however, where this isn’t the case: In Miami, parking garages, like all buildings, are designed to stand out. For evidence, one need only look to Herzog & de Meuron’s iconic structure at 1111 Lincoln Road.
Now, a new parking garage is about to make its mark in Miami’s burgeoning Design District. The Museum Garage is being outfitted with six radically different, radically colorful new façades. Curated by Terence Riley of K/R, this Miami makeover is the product of six design teams working in collaboration.
The teams include the firms Sagmeister & Walsh, WORKac, Clavel Arquitectos, J. MAYER H. and the artist Nicolas Buffe. The designs are as fascinating as they are eclectic, ranging from a wall of cars to a human-scale ant farm. J. MAYER’s red-and-white striped corner unit is particularly bold, with swooping aluminum panels forming a building envelope akin to a gigantic jigsaw puzzle.
The seven-story Museum Garage includes mixed-use gallery and retail space in addition to the garage itself, which accommodates 800 cars. The renovation of the façade is expected to wrap up by the end of the year. Yet another excuse to visit Miami!
For more courageous car-parking structures, check “House of Cars,” featuring eight of the most daring garage façades in contemporary architecture. And if you just can’t get enough of Miami, check out a host of other features on the Magic City:
The Height of Luxury: Inside Zaha Hadid’s Majestic Miami Condo
Your Guide to the Ultimate Miami Spring Break
Back to the Beach: Design Miami Through the Years
Made in Miami: René González on Calm, Clarity and Immediacy
Miami’s Future Tallest Building Already Breaks Records
All images courtesy of ArchDaily; additional reporting by Paul Keskeys