tour leandro erlich's underwater 'traffic jam' of concrete coral cars at miami beach's reefline

"With all twenty concrete 'cars' now parked twenty feet below the ocean's surface, ReefLine introduces its first fully deployed artwork just in time for Miami Art Week 2025. Leandro Erlich's underwater Concrete Coral installation transforms the traffic jam, a symbol of Miami Art Week, into a living underwater habitat which marks a milestone in an ambitious long-term plan to merge public artwork and accessible ocean activism."

"Each of the life-sized concrete cars lurking along Miami Beach's ReefLine weighs up to sixteen tons and began as a digitally modeled form routed into a large 3D-printed mold. This strategy allowed Leandro Erlich's signature uncanny realism to withstand long-term ocean exposure. The sculptures are cast from marine-grade, pH-neutral concrete, custom-engineered to promote coral attachment and withstand the forces of storm-prone waters off South Florida."

Twenty life-sized concrete cars were placed twenty feet below the ocean surface off Miami Beach as the first fully deployed artwork in ReefLine, a seven-mile underwater sculpture park and hybrid reef conceived by Ximena Caminos and masterplanned with OMA / Shohei Shigematsu. Leandro Erlich's Concrete Coral converts a traffic jam motif into a living habitat that reframes discarded engines as vessels of ecological regeneration. Each cast car weighs up to sixteen tons and was formed from digitally modeled shapes routed into 3D-printed molds. Sculptures use marine-grade, pH-neutral concrete engineered for coral attachment and storm resistance. Structural engineering and university testing secured anchoring and durability.

Read at designboom | architecture & design magazine