Miami International Airport — Concourse J

Overview

Sixty-three thousand square feet of new carpet tile across Concourse J at Miami International Airport, one of the busiest international gateways in the country. All of it went down at night, while the concourse kept serving travelers.

The design

The design takes its cue from Miami itself. Bursts of color carry the city’s vibrancy through the concourse: sun yellow under the ticket counters, coral at the elevators, sky and deep blue along the check-in desks, lime green beside the gate seating. Between them, the grey field imitates the shadows that clouds cast across the Everglades, long drifts of light and dark moving over the ground, with each color breaking through like sunlight.

It is an ode to nature and to the landscape South Florida treasures, laid at the front door of the city for every traveler who arrives.

The work

Every tile was placed from a color-key map. The concourse was divided into four zones, A through D, each with its own installation drawing, so the pattern reads as one continuous landscape from gate to gate.

Crews worked through the night, mostly between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m., from November 2023 into February 2024. Each night a section was taped off, the old carpet came up, the floor was prepared and the new tile was set, then the area was opened back up for passengers. Gate lounges, corridors and the areas around the checkpoints and elevators were all done this way, without closing the concourse.

Products installed

• Mohawk Group modular carpet tile
• Color-keyed accent tiles in yellow, coral, blue and green, installed from zone maps A–D