South Beach Billiards was designed to carve a place for socializing and fun out of the rigid grid of a pre-existing warehouse. Before SBB was built, its space was vacant. 13,000 square feet with 16' columns. All new construction was therefore an intrusion into an ordered grid, or forest of columns.

Sander Architects consciously engaged with this structure and sought to modify the order, to introduce the diagonal into the grid, the instinctive and non-rational into the rational, the kinetic as opposed to the static - and thereby enliven the "found" space.

Additions to the warehouse were oriented and turned towards the entry to announce the arrival of the visitor. The forms sought to heighten the subtle differences which occur in social interaction: patrons proceeding to the V.I.P lounge were raised above the crowd on a "fashion ramp", with canopies that covered their procession.

Other forms were playful, kinetic in the way that bodies bending over a billiard table are kinetic.

The final result was a bright, dynamic space that was so popular that on an average night, the bar ran a waiting list for the 37 billiard tables. It served as a favorite hangout in South Beach for well over a decade.

13,000sf
$25sf estimated construction cost