Artaic Creates Tile Mural in Miami’s Little Havana

A TD Bank location in southern Florida recently constructed an outdoor bank patio that included an on-ground mosaic mural, fabricated by Artaic Innovative Mosaics’ robot technology.

“The bank owned the property, but because they were downsizing the building to a 2,500 square foot facility, that left a large empty lot on the premises,” said Christina Sprows, an architect working for Enterprise Real Estate for TD Bank.

Little Havana city officials recommended building a “trellis” area as a parkway to cover that area. A proposals request was sent out to local artists by the building committee when they decided on a mural for the space, introducing them to Santos E. Mendez. The mosaic to be produced was based on an original painting provided by Mendez titled “Myaamia.” Myaamia is a Native American Algonquian language spoken by the Seminole Indians that translates to “allies” or “friends,” and after which the Miami River was named. After deciding on artwork for the mosaic, the committee selected Artaic to manufacture the mosaic tiles.

“Without question, this was the mosaic rm we wanted,” said Sprows. “The project was shipped from Artaic’s factory in Boston as a pre-fitted, ready to install kit of one square foot sheets. Professional Flooring Contractors of Coral Springs, Florida, completed the installation… and, it was very easy to do with the templates Artaic provided. I loved the idea that the tile used was sintered glass made from 100% recycled windshields.”

Sharon Carlson of Professional Flooring Contractors added, “This project is one that our team is very proud of. We worked side-by-side with Steve Price of Bostik in creating ‘just the right prescription’ for this type of installation. As an installer, it is very important to have the right installation materials for the job, which is why we worked directly with the manufacturer. Steve basically wrote the script for this. ”

The finished mural was 730.9 square feet, incorporating 404,800 uniquely-placed tiles, with 24 colors hand selected by Mendez.