INTERLACE, MOUNT SINAI MEDICAL CENTER FACADE

During my time at Faulders Studio, I was fully involved in the design of a permanent façade for a new 6-story, 929 automobile Employee Parking Garage. The nearly 27,000 sq ft façade elegantly wraps three elevations of the 326,000 sq ft parking structure, designed by Netta Architects.

Featuring overlapping curves and interwoven geometries, the façade establishes a ripple-like connection with its surroundings, harmonizing with the serene tranquility of Biscayne Bay and the bustling energy of the nearby Julia Tuttle Expressway. Positioned at the apex of a cutting-edge medical campus, this porous architectural skin serves a dual purpose: acting as a striking urban landmark while offering a soft, captivating presence for caregivers and visitors up close.

Meticulously crafted to engage at multiple scales, the façade’s taut exterior reveals an unexpected depth and variation, shifting dynamically based on changing sunlight angles, optical perspectives, and viewer movement around its perimeter. Horizontal lines on the façade forge visual connections to the distant horizon of the bay, the characteristic strip windows of neighboring legacy buildings, and the ceaseless traffic flows along the adjacent causeway. In its most prominent areas, sloping geometric contours create a “curves on a curve” design strategy, adding textural richness to the sections most visible from public routes.

The façade’s intricate pattern begins with a 3-dimensional digital "relief" encompassing the entire building skin. This relief, carefully rendered with realistic highlights and shadows, is translated into a flattened, 2-dimensional matrix of variously sized perforations. Balancing visual impact and strict code compliance for natural ventilation, this matrix navigates two critical challenges: maintaining the legibility of the optical design while ensuring rigorous performance standards for the building envelope. When paired with sinuous, protruding fins, the result is a highly efficient and materially elegant façade that achieves an extraordinary sense of 3-dimensional complexity. From the interior parking levels, the façade transforms its appearance as sunlight filters through, casting dynamic and ever-changing shadow patterns. Its porous design transitions effortlessly between solid and transparent, creating a visually dynamic structure that evolves with light and perspective—blending bold architectural innovation with subtle aesthetic appeal.