South Beach isn’t just about neon signs and sandy selfies anymore. Soon, it’ll also be home to a seven-mile underwater art installation designed to save coral and dazzle snorkelers at the same time.
Welcome to The Reefline: part sculpture park, part snorkel trail and part science experiment in marine resilience. Launching its first phase later this year, the ambitious public art project aims to create a hybrid reef just offshore of Miami Beach using sculptures that double as homes for fish and nurseries for coral.
“Mother Nature is the ultimate artist,” Ximena Caminos, founder and artistic director of The Reefline, told NBC. “What we’re doing is giving nature and amplifying that marine habitat, because it’s needed.”
Phase one of the installation, Concrete Coral, features a traffic jam of 22 full-size concrete cars, designed by Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich. The twist? Instead of polluting the ocean, these cars are engineered to house marine life, offering shelter for fish and a foundation for coral to flourish.
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It’s a clever way to flip the script—using icons of environmental destruction to spark restoration. And yes, it makes for one surreal snorkeling experience.
But The Reefline isn’t just about eye candy for underwater tourists. It’s built with serious science behind it. Coral expert Colin Foord, co-founder of marine biology and art studio Coral Morphologic, is helping to populate the sculptures with climate-resilient coral clones grown in Miami labs.
“We are accelerating the development of a fully healthy coral reef by decades,” Foord explained. “When you put the mask on and you get into the water, it’s like time slows down.”
Future phases include The Miami Reef Star by Carlos Betancourt and Alberto Latorre, inspired by the movement of starfish and the celestial ocean connection. Like Phase 1, it’ll be engineered with the latest in “blue tech,” marine architecture designed to actually work for the sea.
With coral under global threat, The Reefline offers a radical reimagining: a reef that’s beautiful, functional and fiercely hopeful.