Sterling Building

Miami Beach, Florida | design 2011

The Sterling Building is an Art Deco landmark on Lincoln Road – its streamlined breezeway sweeping from Lincoln Road toward a small patio just behind. In 2011, S+A developed a proposal for a new Patio Building behind the Sterling Building, drawing increased energy off Lincoln Road and enlarging the patio. As a reference, the project recalls an earlier patio building (called the Lincoln Road Patio), considerably larger than the current space. By tracing the original patio extent, and drawing out the new addition vertically, the new project re-connects with its history while adding an important and commercially viable new layer to the site. In contrast to the classically-conceived Sterling Building, S+A’s Patio Building comprises a series of dynamic and shifting plates that negotiate the complex web of existing historic structures.