A suit brought last Wednesday by Miami’s Frost Museum of Science against the Florida Department of Transportation seeks the removal of a giant billboard on the premises of the Pérez Museum of Art, Miami. The lawsuit was first reported by Axios.
According to the suit, the 1800-square-foot digital billboard violates state law. In addition to featuring PAMM programming, the billboard advertises luxury goods from the likes of Tiffany and Yves Saint Laurent.
The billboard’s fraught history goes back to 2023. In Florida, billboards near highways require a permit and cannot be larger than 950 square feet unless the sign is built on the premises of a business. The billboard must also primarily advertise that business or products sold at that business, and the business cannot receive rental income from the billboard. PAMM faces the MacArthur Causeway, part of the state highway system.
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However, in 2023 an exception to that law was granted by the City Commission to PAMM and to the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, allowing them to install digital billboards nearly twice the size of those permitted elsewhere in Florida. A 2024 report by the Art Newspaper revealed that the 2023 exception was introduced by then-commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla, to whose failed re-election campaign PAMM billboard’s operator, Orange Barrel Media, had given $225,000.
PAMM was the only organization to construct a sign under the exception, applying for, and receiving, a city permit to do so under the terms of the size exception. Getting around one of the Florida Department of Transportation regulations, the museum concurrently installed a kiosk in its garage enabling visitors to purchase any goods advertised on the billboard. Despite this, according to the Axios report, a 2024 an FDOT letter to PAMM specified that those goods had to be available for pickup at the museum.
After neighborhood opposition to the PAMM’s billboard, city commissioners overturned the exemption in 2024. And, though billboard had already been constructed, the city argued that it was illegal on the grounds that PAMM had violated its ground lease with Miami in building the sign without its approval. A court fight was settled last month with PAMM agreeing to reduce the number of hours the sign was on and to pay the city at least $500,000 annually (its earnings from selling digital ads on the PAMM billboard are estimated to be $1.5 million per year).
The current lawsuit, brought against the FDOT by PAMM’s by near neighbor Frost Science, returns to FDOT regulations, saying that the sign exceeds state size restrictions, that it advertises products unrelated to the museum’s business, and that it generates income for the museum.
In an email to ARTnews, PAMM wrote, “Pérez Art Museum Miami’s sign was meticulously reviewed and approved by all relevant authorities, ensuring full compliance with state and local regulations. While we hold Frost Science Museum in high regard as a cultural partner, we regret the distraction from our shared mission of enriching Miami’s arts and sciences landscape.”
Douglas Roberts, president & CEO of Frost Science, said in a statement to ARTnews, “Frost Science opposes advertisements on this oversized sign because they degrade the environment of learning and curiosity that is central to the museum experience. The bright light source restrains use of Frost Science’s outside spaces, especially at night. The Florida Depart of Transportation’s failure to enforce the law prohibiting such a sign jeopardizes millions of dollars in badly needed federal highway funding to Florida. Frost Science filed this lawsuit to address these concerns.”
He also added that the sign was “illegal and should not have been built in the first place,” and repeated a call for its removal.
