In the middle of the pandemic, we were tasked by developer Harris Bay to come up with boutique hotel / motel concepts (brand and full property concepts), contextual to a few key locations that were one-of-a kind.

When looking at Miami, we surveyed the competition and one thing was certain: there were plenty of vibrant, cheerful, and happy hotels... but was there a hotel that represented the isolation and sadness that as a world, we were all feeling? We wanted to design a motel that evoked an emotion we could all connect to: sorrow. Instead of making sorrow linear (and only sad), we wanted to portray the beauty that comes from loss.

To lay the foundation, we found a dilapidated post office building from the 1920s and conceptually built the design foundation upon its crumbling state. We layered in deep, gem-colored flora with neon lighting in the "pool of tears".

The model rooms pull from the "poppy" and "papilio" symbols (a take on "ayy papi") of death and remembrance with graphic wall-to-wall carpet and stunning, rich-hued furniture pieces.