In 1982, the Owners of the Luminaire Showroom carrying classics of modern design set out to “create a building to showcase a philosophy of good design as a way of life.” The building, located on a busy corner of downtown Coral Gables, Florida for the last 40 years was and still is a minimalist, transparent testimony to that philosophy for all to see. Over the years, Luminaire has been celebrated worldwide and has won just about every American Institute of Architects Design Award available, including the 25 year “Test of Time Award” from both the Miami Chapter and the Florida Association of the AIA.
The need to expand and feature additional furniture collections resulted in a building expansion behind the existing showroom, a two-level space visible and accessible only from an underwhelming city alley on the northeast side of the original building.
The new addition is a seamless connection to the existing showroom, paying homage to the original building by celebrating elements of the original materiality and composition; a central skylight washing soft light to the interior spaces while metal skin panels and glass wrap the exterior envelope. Contrasting the original showroom, the addition reverses the proportions of transparency and enclosure of the envelope due to its location on the unkept city alley, yet creating a visual respite, an oasis from the ordinary existing alley composition and conditions.
The addition is composed of an interior air-conditioned display on the upper level while creating a covered setting for outdoor furniture displays on the ground level, buffered from the alley by exposed concrete walls and a green wall that act as backdrop to the furniture settings.
In Coral Gables, Florida, a city committed to encouraging buildings dressed in a romantic-historic Mediterranean wrapping, the building of such a modern, functional design, straightforward in its use of materials, the Luminaire Showroom and its new addition will continue to stand in quiet testimony to the best tenets of a still vital and viable modern tradition and way of life.
