OREANDA-NEWS. Two recently renovated areas of Miami International Airport have been recognized with awards for excellence in interior design. MIA's North Terminal Marketplace won the top retail design award from the International Interior Design Association's (IIDA) South Florida Chapter in July, the MIA Hotel lobby renovation was recognized by the Network of Executive Women In Hospitality (NEWH) earlier this year, and the MIA Hotel lobby's terrazzo floor obtained a Floor Focus Magazine Vision Design Award this year as well.

"I want to congratulate our Interior Design section and Business Development staff, as well as our architecture firm Heery International, for their creativity and expertise," said MDAD Director Emilio T. Gonzalez. "These prestigious awards are further confirmation that we are dramatically improving the appearance and passenger experience at MIA."

Out of 20 entries in the retail category, MIA's new North Terminal Marketplace won the top honor in IIDA South Florida's annual SANDI (South Florida Novedosos Disenos de Interiores/Innovative Interior Designs) Awards. The award jury noted "the difficulty of the project in terms of site and the success of integration into the existing architectural vocabulary, while producing a bright and attractive retail element." Designed by Heery International and located between Gates D-26 and D-29, the Marketplace features locally themed concepts that provide a sampling of Miami's diverse demographics, from Caribbean and Mediterranean food to stone crabs, empanadas and Cuban-style cigars.

New flooring, lighting, check-in area and seating renovations designed in-house by MDAD for the MIA Hotel lobby last year earned the project a SOFHIE (South Florida Hospitality Industry Excellence) Award in retail design from the NEWH. The MIA Hotel, located in Concourse E pre-security, provides passengers with 252 guest rooms and seven suites in the center of MIA. NEWH is a premier networking resource for the hospitality industry, providing scholarships, education, leadership development, recognition of excellence and business development opportunities.

The dazzling white, blue and green terrazzo floor in the MIA Hotel lobby also earned it a Vision Design Award in the hospitality category from Floor Focus magazine, one of the oldest magazines for analysis and education in the flooring industry. The Vision Design Awards is an annual competition where architects and designers enter recent projects in five categories: corporate; education; healthcare; retail; and hospitality.