Empower Vista at Turn 1: Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix, Hard Rock Stadium

When Empower arrived in Florida for the first Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix suite in the brand's history, they came as one of the event's main sponsors with a bold ask: turn a cold, 40 by 40 foot aluminum shell on the third floor of Hard Rock Stadium's Vista Suites into a warm, permanent-feeling escape. Gilded Group Decor answered with an "Ocean Club," a serene coastal oasis suspended directly above Turn 1, where guests could step out of the roar of Formula 1 and into the calm of the Miami shoreline.

The concept grew from the heart of Empower's campaign: freedom. In Miami, freedom looks like open water and endless sky, so we built the suite around the feeling of a private club by the sea, tying in their marketing campaign around "freedom." For the custom palette, we incorporated some of the brand's very own tones. Arctic, Cloud, and Sand grounded the room in soft neutrals, while Silver and a deep blue we called Muted Ocean added the depth of light moving across water. Two custom graphics carried the story: "The Wave," drawn from Empower's own logo, and "The Wallpaper," a sea-grass pattern in a grayish blue. Overhead, custom-fabricated lamp structures combining nautical rope and perforated pendants cast the dappled light of sun moving through water.

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At the center stood a dramatic master bar, its 24-foot front built as a continuous wave from 96 individual slats set vertically every three inches, with a full back-of-house service room concealed behind it. Food stations framed in open shelf walls divided the catering from the guest experience, and a custom swag wall paired open display shelves with locked storage. Every lounge and woven seat was custom upholstered for the client, and Gilded produced all florals and greenery in-house, from king protea and anthurium to blue sea holly and bundled bamboo.

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Each piece that made up this four-day environment was fabricated off-site in our 40,000-square-foot warehouse in Doral, trucked to Hard Rock Stadium, raised to the third floor by boom lift, and assembled on site. The Empower Vista at Turn 1 transformed raw metal into a coastal sanctuary. It proved that luxury event design and production within the sports and hospitality realm can set the entire mood of a space, giving guests a true oasis amid one of racing's loudest weekends.