Dominoes are part of a new concrete landscape

Artist Bo Droga and his volunteer crew have been creating a large row of dominoes along US1, under the Metrorail tracks. You have probably seen them as you drove south.

The large columns in the area across from the University Station at the University of Miami have been turned from drab cement to black and white domino pieces. They are along Ponce de Leon Boulevard from Stanford Drive to South Alhambra Circle. Droga's work is inspired by many things, usually by his immediate surrounding and the local material at hand. “The common thread within my artwork is the simplicity in form, and use of everyday material," he says. The volunteers helping him on the project are all moms, all volunteers and all French.

Artist Bo Droga, photo by Alfred Feingold

The "Miami Dominoes" installation will eventually include 46 of the columns when completed, as of now, there are still a few more being worked on. They are up to 18 feet high.

Droga is Australian, who came to Miami by way of Paris. After all these years, he is the one who had the eye to see something that was staring us all in the face all these years.

I must admit when they were building Metrorail in the early 1980s, I would see the pylons/columns which we called "Stonehenge South" at the time and thought they would make great surfaces for advertising. Thank God that never became the case.

The crew uses large metal forms to create the round domino dots. The area will eventually be part of the long Underline project and Droga envisions outdoor tables and people sitting around in the area playing dominoes - a sort of sister to Domino Park that is in Little Havana.

Droga originally had the domino idea for a project in Australia, but it never got off the ground due to permitting issues and when he moved here and saw the Metrorail pylons, he knew exactly what to do.The Miami-Dade County transportation and public works department helped him get permitted and he was off.

One thing that the local community has noticed - the dominoes are a "double six" set, where in Miami, "double nines" is popular. Droga knows that, but feels that the sixes make for a better look and art installation.

Photos by Harry Gottlieb