Leandro Erlich submerges ‘concrete coral’ along miami beach
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. The seven-mile underwater sculpture park and hybrid reef is being conceived by Ximena Caminos and masterplanned with OMA / Shohei Shigematsu off the coast of Miami Beach. 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.
Leandro Erlich’s concept is a submerged ‘traffic jam,’ converting engines of past pollution into vessels of regeneration. The concept is both a warning and a proposition. ‘Once carriers of pollution and speed, they now become vessels of regeneration,’ the artist notes. ‘What once drove us away from nature becomes a stage for its return.’
From December 1st — 5th, Miami Art Week visitors can encounter Concrete Coral through a series of on-water and on-land activations designed to bridge the beach with the underwater site — see designboom’s guide to Miami Art Week 2025 here!
Concrete Coral, image courtesy Brittany Weber
fabricating the reefline: 3D-printing and marine-grade concrete
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.
Structural engineering by Cummins Cederberg ensured each car’s embedded base remains securely anchored to the seafloor. Before deployment, the system was tested at the University of Miami’s SUSTAIN Laboratory, where the structures endured simulated hurricane-strength wave conditions. Only after passing these evaluations were the works green-lit for immersion and delivered offshore by Kearns Construction.
images © Christopher Uriarte
deployment: a new underwater park 780 feet off Miami Beach
The final ReefLine installation sits 780 feet off the Miami shoreline between 4th and 5th Streets, arranged in a snaking configuration that echoes the choreography of concrete cars. Over the next several months, the cars will be seeded with thousands of coral fragments cultivated at ReefLine’s Miami Native Coral Lab using Coral Lok, a patented system that secures corals quickly while minimizing stress. These octocorals, cultivated for resilience, will branch upward like a forest reclaiming a deserted highway.
‘Visually, they will create the appearance of a forest overgrowing a traffic jam as nature reclaims it as its own,’ says ReefLine Director of Science Colin Foord.
image © Nola Schoder
public access during miami art week
Andrés Reisinger’s Meditation Buoy marks the site: A new large-scale, pastel-toned Meditation Buoy by digital-physical artist Andrés Reisinger rises from the ocean surface above the submerged cars. The buoy doubles as a navigational point and a contemplative marker, turning the seascape into a meditative zone accessible to swimmers and paddleboarders.
BMW x SipaBoards electric paddleboards: Visitors can travel to the site aboard co-branded BMW x SipaBoards electric paddleboards, available for pickup at ReefLine’s headquarters on 9th Street. The devices offer a quiet, low-impact way to traverse the water and observe the buoy’s position before diving or snorkeling below.
The Floating Marine Learning Center: ReefLine’s Floating Marine Learning Center — a hybrid dive boat and research deck — anchors near the artwork throughout Miami Art Week. The platform hosts: coral-restoration workshops; drop-in conversations with artists, divers, and scientists; daily educational sessions led by the University of Miami’s Rescue a Reef program; two-hour excursions departing from Miami Beach Marina; guided discussions on art and marine futures by artist Leandro Erlich and oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle.
Visitors can book excursions directly through ReefLine’s website.
image © Nola Schoder
image © Nola Schoder
image © Nola Schoder
image © Nola Schoder
image © Nola Schoder
project info:
name: The ReefLine | @thereefline
artist: Leandro Erlich | @leandroerlichofficial
location: Miami Beach, Florida
deployment: October 2025
previous coverage: November 2020, December 2024, August 2025
photography: © Brittany Weber, Nola Schoder, Christopher Uriarte
fabricator: Madco3D | @madco3d
structural engineering: Cummins Cederberg
construction: Kearns Construction
coral cultivation: Miami Native Coral Lab (Colin Foord)
artistic director, founder: Ximena Caminos
master planner: OMA / Shohei Shigematsu
curatorial advisors: Brandi Reddick (Cultural Affairs Manager, City of Miami Beach), Jérôme Sanz (Independent Curator)
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