A new 1,800ft digital billboard the Pérez Art Museum Miami (Pamm) built to be a major source of additional revenue may now turn into a major source of headaches and legal expenses. Last week, Miami’s city commissioners voted four-against-one to repeal the 2023 law that allowed the museum to build the oversize billboard, which is more than twice as large as the maximum size of digital billboards allowed elsewhere in Miami and Miami-Dade County, according to the Miami Herald.
Repealing the law will not singlehandedly force the removal of the sign. In addition to the 2023 municipal law allowing it to build the billboard, the museum received a permit from the city’s building department. But the repeal could leave the museum vulnerable to legal challenges. “There is a path to bring down the Pamm sign through our lease,” city commissioner Damian Pardo told the Herald. “It should come down. That is what residents are demanding.”
The vote by the city commissioners paves the way for a judge to rule on whether the museum violated the terms of its lease with the city by building the billboard, and whether its contract with the Ohio-based firm Orange Barrel Media for the billboard actually falls under the city’s authority.
In a statement, a Pamm spokesperson told The Art Newspaper the museum has not received any official communications on the matter from municipal authorities and “we are in full compliance with our agreement with the city and with all applicable laws, and look forward to successfully resolving this issue”.
The Pamm spokesperson added: “This project creates a new highly visible way for us to connect with the Miami community at large, to share what is happening inside of PAMM, and to invite them to visit, while at the same time generating critical funding for our ongoing operations, exhibitions, and programs. The project will allow us to provide a platform for artists to share their work with the public in the broadest way possible.”
According to the Herald, the billboard—which faces the MacArthur Causeway, one of the major roads crossing Biscayne Bay between Miami and Miami Beach—is expected to generate millions in revenue annually. However, residents in the surrounding area of downtown Miami have voiced concerns that the bright digital billboard will affect their views. “We want to support the arts, but we don’t want to destroy our neighbourhood,” Kristen Browde, owner of a nearby condominium, told the Herald.
In a statement to The Art Newspaper, a representative for Orange Barrel Media (OBM) disputed the Pamm billboard’s impact on nearby residents.
“The sign is more than 1,000ft from the nearest residential unit, is turned off in the evening and is bound to brightness standards that will ensure the sign does not create any negative impact,” the OBM spokesperson said. “This project is sensitive to the context of Pamm and the surrounding neighbourhood, and is less than 20% of the size of approximately 50 10,000 sq. ft advertising signs that are already installed in the immediately surrounding downtown area, and approximately half the size of the digital sign already installed on the NBA arena next door.”
The law passed last year that allowed Pamm to construct its billboard also opened the door for the nearby Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts to build two ten-storey billboards, though those never received the necessary approvals to begin construction.
The 2023 law paving the way for the larger digital billboards at Pamm and the Arsht Center was introduced by then-commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla, who was subsequently arrested. He faces a range of felony charges including for alleged money laundering, unlawful compensation, bribery, criminal conspiracy and official misconduct, as well as misdemeanor charges. Díaz de la Portilla has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. OBM gave $225,000 to his failed re-election campaign last year.
