Brought in by the contractor, Bouygues, Lux Populi was briefed with bringing life to the gate towers of the Port Miami Tunnel – the new gateway both to the Port (and America, for those arriving) and to South Beach.  The tunnel towers contain massive flood gates that can close the tunnel to water during a high tide or storm event.  Their massive, industrial and practical nature aside, ArquitectonicaGEO collaborated with Lux Populi to bring a lightness and elegance to the structures whilst retaining the confident intensity of their masses.

The expression during the day of the sheer concrete with its stamped text forms is gently retained at night with minimal soft fill lighting, whilst the apertures, the breathing elements of the tunnel glow with rich red/amber light.

Each surface appears a subtly different shade, but in fact, each is blended with two tones of light, the color you see determined by the viewing angle – as cars whizz by on the causeway, the apertures shift from red to amber as an optical effect.

The colors represent not only the rust-red color of the ventilation apertures, but also utilize red and amber LEDs, products with fixed monospectral wavelengths – ones that do not contribute to turtle disorientation through the sky glow, and can be repeatedly replaced over the life of the tunnel without changing the character of the light – too many white LEDs vary from batch to batch, let alone over decades, but the amber and red are eternal.  As built infrastructure, it is essential that the towers be maintainable and beautiful throughout their long projected lives.