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What ‘A Journey’ in Terrazzo

Innovative techniques and a unique artist-artisan collaboration bring a richly layered public artwork to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International.

A Journey—an extraordinary terrazzo installation at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport—vividly demonstrates once again that art doesn’t necessarily hang on a wall. Commissioned in partnership with Broward County’s Public Art & Design Program, this master work in terrazzo spans a corridor that millions of travelers traverse each year.

Hibiscus BridgeThe project brought together Creative Terrazzo Systems, a National Terrazzo & Mosaic Association member contractor, and award-winning French-Caribbean mixed media artist Marielle Plaisir. For her first encounter with epoxy terrazzo as a medium, Plaisir submitted a photograph of her original artwork, which the contractor translated into a detailed line drawing and paint-by-number-style stencil to guide the complex installation.

 

Rather than using the traditional metal divider strips generally used in terrazzo, the team implemented foam rubber, cut into precise ½-inch strips, to shape the design’s intricate forms. The method allowed for tight curves, delicate outlines, and fluid transitions. After one section was poured and cured, the foam was removed and replaced to contain the next, enabling a remarkable level of detail and blending.

Plaisir joined the artisans on-site, helping hand-mix more than 100 custom terrazzo colors from a base palette of just 12 formulas. Each element of the composition—flowers, leaves, roots—was poured by hand. Aggregates were added, and pigments blended while the mix was still wet, creating soft transitions.

Hibiscus Bridge

Unveiled in May 2024, the resulting floor is both durable and delicate in appearance—an impressionistic landscape with a hand-rendered look, bringing artistry underfoot in a functional connector linking Terminal 1 to the Hibiscus Garage. “What was intended to be a simple terrazzo floor was elevated to become a cheerful welcome runner, a unique amenity to enhance the airport guest experience,” said airport CEO Mark Gale.

“We’re proud this program provided an opportunity for an artist to learn and master a new medium,” added Philip Dunlap, Director of the Broward Cultural Division.

Creative Terrazzo Systems of Southwest Ranches, Florida, earned a Judges’ Choice Art Award from the NTMA for ingenuity and craftsmanship on the project.

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