A slender addition and restoration activate a highly visible site tight against an interstate highway.

Located at the entrance to Miami's Design District, at the intersection of Interstate 195 and NE 2nd Avenue (the district's North-South main street), the Billboard Building exploits its location to maximum effect. The project combines a 3-story 1920s commercial building with a slender addition that rises more than 90 feet. The addition embraces the old building, with a structured wrapper that forms a billboard facing the highway corridor on one side, and an art-wall facing the district on the other. The architectural integration of the two buildings contrasts the ornate stucco façade of the original with the transparent, scenographic qualities of the tower. Originally intended for multiple retail tenants, the building now houses the first US branch of the Italian fashion school Istituto Marangoni. 

Understanding the economics of billboards was critical to project success. The resultant design employs an architectural envelope of two separate wallpapers: the wide face parallel to the highway, is designated for art installations in collaboration with the Institute of Contemporary Art, while the west face, visible to eastbound traffic on I-195, is a vertical commercial billboard space.

Toward the street, the vintage building engages the pedestrian scale, while the glazing of the new building reveals the interior floor plates, activating a vertical scale. To the freeway, the building offers a conceptual transformation of the highway into a spatial corridor, reconsidering the role of the car and
challenging the notion that highways must command open space.