This past February, we went back to Miami for our second workshop. While the city is well-known for its Art Deco buildings, there’s a lot of great modern architecture that makes it a great location for a workshop! Despite a few showers, we had a great time with a fantastic group of 9 people!

We started Saturday morning with a tour of the Miami Design District, which has a lot of great buildings! First, we had arranged a private tour of the Moore Building. The historic Art Deco building was renovated and has an amazing installation, Elastika, by Zaha Hadid. The students were able to shoot the entire space for an hour.

 

It was a great addition this year and we’ll definitely do it again next year if the space is available.

Our next stop was just across the street: Dash Fence (Marc Newson) at the Design and Architecture High School. The fence has some great lines and patterns, and we caught the sunlight just right to make it glow!

A short walk led us to the Nuage Promenade (Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec), a series of canopies with interesting patterns. With the intermittent showers, it created some interesting patterns with droplets.

Next, we stopped by the Rick Owens store and its brutalist facade, which offers some great patterns and triangles.

Just down the street is the Institute of Contemporary Art (Aranguren & Gallegos Architects), which also has a facade with great patterns and triangles. Depending on the light, you can also get creative with white balance.

Just across the street is Museum Garage, a collaboration between 4 firms (WORKac + Nicolas Buffe + Clavel Arquitectos + K/R and J. MAYER. H.). While not the easiest to shoot, you can find some interesting details if you zoom in.

Our next stop was the Tom Ford store and its facade with many lines and patterns. Depending on your framing, you can create tension with triangular shapes and diagonals.

Just down the street is yet another great facade at the Louis Vuitton store. Explore the many patterns of the shiny white facade, that can look very different depending on the light.

We then stopped at Buckminster Fuller’s Fly Eye’s Dome. There are many ways to shoot the dome, from wide to details, from outside, from the spiral staircase inside, and using reflections on the nearby glass columns.

After a break for lunch, we headed to our final stop in the Design District: the City View Garage (Leong Leong and Iwamoto Scott). The parking garage has multiples facades with different patterns. On the east side, it’s a blue rectilinear cladding:

On the west side, the gold cladding has curvy cutouts that make for great abstracts.

After an Uber ride to Miami Beach, we spent some time photographing the facade of the Miami Beach Convention Center (Arquitectonica and Fentress). The sculptural fins provide many lines and patterns, depending on your angle.

Just a couple of blocks south is the New World Centre (Frank Gehry). While the exteriors are worth shooting, this year we had arranged for a private tour of the interiors as well. Students got a one-hour tour of the building, including the auditorium and were able to photograph at their own pace.

We ended the day on Hobie Island, photographing the skyline at blue hour. We had dinner with the group before heading back to the hotel.

On Sunday morning, we met very early to shoot the skyline from Watson Island at dawn.

We then walked across the bridge to 1000 Museum (Zaha Hadid). The residential tower stands out with its curves and alien-like design.

After stopping for breakfast, we took the Metromover (Miami’s elevated train) to our next location. It’s a great little ride with some shooting opportunities on the way, including reflections:

We spent the rest of the day in the Brickell District, a central neighborhood with high-rises. Our first stop was the SLS Brickell Hotel & Residence (Arquitectonica). Its angular balconies are great for abstracts, including in-camera motion, as Angie did below:

We walked a few blocks to the Brickell Flatiron (Luis Revuelta), another residential tower with interesting balconies, but this time curvy.

Our next stop was Brickell Heights Condos (Arquitectonica), where the balconies are a combination of curves and angles.

Just around the corner is Solitair Brickell (ADD Inc & Stantec), with more interesting balconies.

Our final stop was the Brickell City Centre (Arquitectonica), an outdoor mall with a great canopy. The curves and patterns look great in color and black & white.

We ended the workshop with lunch before heading back to the hotel. It was a great workshop with a fantastic group and we’re looking forward to going back in 2021!