Nike’s decision to open a flagship store on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, came with stipulations from the city that the store had to harmonize with the built landscape of Lincoln Road as it was, the building could not be a generic rollout of previous flagship designs. The crux of the design for this project involved understanding the Miami Beach lifestyle and the unique context of Lincoln Road.
The facade design came from wanting to design a high-performing structure using innovative technologies, akin to the manner with with Nike designs their products. Given Miami's warm, subtropical climate, implementing a shading system to protect against excess heat gain from the sun provided a way to deliver high performance, while using an architectural vocabulary suited to Miami's climate and history. Using ductal concrete for Nike's brise-soleil facade provided two benefits: concrete is a local material that is very familiar to the city's builders, and ductal concrete in particular is fiber reinforced and therefore capable of sustaining greater weight and tension even when perforated. The resulting façade for the building seamlessly marries Nike’s global design brand with the local culture of Miami Beach’s historic block.