DFA transformed three side-by-side warehouses into a single dynamic destination for dining and shopping. Studying existing site-circulation, we determined that the long blocks of Wynwood could be better connected using diagonal desire lines cutting through our site. We proposed a series of shaded, retail-activated streets organized by these existing desire lines. The four diagonal streets meet in the central trapezoidal atrium open to the sky. A grand public stair fills one side of the atrium, acting as a hangout and providing an organic way to discover the rooftop restaurant.

A large canopied seagrape tree and three smaller trees in the atrium provide shade for seating at the stair. At the Wynwood Arcades, rather than creating a neutral canvas for street art, DFA created an architecture in dialogue with art. The artist Tristan Eaton’s piece responded to DFA’s diagonal, playful facades with his own dynamic graphic intervention. In creating a diagonal plan to be imposed upon the rectilinear industrial warehouses with their precast double T-profile roofs, DFA was willfully quixotic.

A building that was previously simple, efficient and industrial is dissected in its renovation and becomes unpredictable and dynamic. Credits: - Ocean Engineering, Inc. - Civil Engineering Consultant - Naturalficial - Landscape Architect - Robert Sillman Associates - Structural Consultants - Henry Vidal & Associates - MEP Consultant - East End Capital - Owner/Client - Laith Sayigh - Photographer - Robin Hill - Photographer - Tristan Eaton - Artist - exterior facade - Carl Levin, RA - Architect of Record - Hitotzuki - Artist - Interior