Freedom Tower Miami
Transforming a historic landmark into an exploration of freedom in America today
Overview
THE OPPORTUNITY
The Freedom Tower is one of Miami’s most recognizable landmarks, but few knew its true significance—until now. From its birth as Miami's first skyscraper and home of the Miami News, to its transformation into the Cuban Refugee Center that supported over 400,000 Cuban exiles in the 1960s and 70s, it witnessed Miami’s evolution and the ongoing search for freedom and opportunity.
As part of a $30 million renovation, Miami Dade College engaged Local Projects to envision an experience that would honor the past while attracting an audience of international and regional tourists, existing and prospective college students, and Miamians of all ages.
THE STRATEGY:
To shape the visitor journey from entry to exit, we developed a master plan to increase accessibility and intuitive navigation through the historic building. Then, we worked with the College to initiate an oral history project interviewing hundreds of people with a connection to the tower. The passion, laughter, and tears captured in these recordings formed the backbone of the media experiences, giving them a specificity and emotional weight beyond typical “museum voice.”
THE DESIGN:
Across 30,000 square feet, we transformed the building into a storytelling engine, choreographing light, sound, and media to tell nuanced histories without flattening them. Contrast and cadence define the Freedom Tower experience. Historic rooms, immersive recreations, and contemporary galleries are each activated with their own media and scenography, creating a deliberate, often surprising experiential rhythm. As visitors move through the building, they encounter sweeping panoramic video, hand-painted miniatures, original historical artifacts and unexpected, tactile interfaces, with each space revealing its story in a different voice.
Partners
Media Pro, Dimensional Worldwide, Big Object Studio
“The Freedom Tower is more than a historic building — it’s a living symbol of Miami’s spirit. We honor its past and embrace its future as a center for education, culture, and civic life. Miami Dade College is proud to preserve and elevate this landmark for the community it has served and to welcome visitors from around the world.”
The Details
Towers of Freedom
With its soaring barrel vault ceiling and Corinthian columns, the historic Freedom Hall is unlike any other space in Miami. Its Art Deco grandeur came with strings attached, including strict preservation rules prohibiting permanent modification to the ceilings, walls, and floors. Our solution: six glowing ‘Towers of Freedom’ stand proudly around the perimeter of the hall, encouraging visitors to take a closer look.
The monuments are identical from a distance, but each interior tells the story of a different era of the building.
When a visitor approaches, transparent screens reveal hand-painted dioramas and initiate an audiovisual show featuring the occupants, arrivals, and impacts of that moment in time. The towers function as an exhibit during typical museum days, and as supportive illumination during special events and gatherings. The constraints of the space inspired a solution where technology is hidden within form, allowing media to feel integrated rather than intrusive.
Reflections of Miami
The Knight Skylight Gallery celebrates the immigrant spirit in Miami by featuring the people and places that make the city unique. As the centerpiece, we filmed twenty locations around the city, from fruit and flower vendors to night clubs, prioritizing community anchors over tourist hotspots. The video installation is soundtracked by fourteen songs demonstrating Miami’s rich musical culture.
The result is a new kind of “reflection space”—one that is vibrant and alive, encouraging conversation, laughter, and even dancing.
El Refugio
Visitors embark on a multi-room immersive journey following the journey of Cuban exiles from their homeland to Miami and beyond. The experience begins with the emotional projection-mapped “Leaving Cuba,” a nod to the many Cubans who arrived with only one suitcase.
From here, visitors explore a sequence of spaces that integrate historical artifacts with video and interactive media. Throughout the space, all audio is drawn from the oral history archive developed as part of the project, creating greater emotional authenticity.
Visiting the Freedom Tower left an indelible mark on the collective memory of the 400,000 Cubans who received services there. From health exams and English classes to government cheese and cans of Spam, the comprehensive assistance program was a unique moment in American public services. During our research process, first-generation Cubans repeatedly expressed their wish for their descendants to experience what it was like to arrive in a foreign country and the importance of a refuge like the Freedom Tower. To address this, we meticulously recreated the waiting room portion of the El Refugio, giving multigenerational visitors the closest thing to time travel.
Visitors can browse through a collection of oral histories using a recreation of a radio broadcast studio or leave their own message.
Voices of Miami
The visit concludes with a stunning finale that pairs excerpts from the oral history archive with hundreds of portraits by local photographer Clara Toro. Using a gesture-based interface, visitors select a theme of interest to hear related testimonials. This thrilling culmination of the journey reminds visitors that a city is an ongoing group collaboration, constantly made and remade by the hope and courage of its residents.
