RC Cola Plant at 550 NW 24 Street. Just as the Great Wall can be
seen from space, Miami residents have been treated to epic graffiti murals that can be seen clearly from I-95 (or while driving around the streets of Wynwood). When we spoke with BooksIIII about Primary Flight's plans for the building this Art Basel, we became highly intrigued about this structure's past and decided to do some digging. Read on for the timeline and a video of the space's ever-changing facade.
Graffiti timeline of the RC Cola Plant:
- Early 1990s: The words "Yammy, Yammy, Miami" are displayed on one of the walls
- 1995 through 1998: All illegal pieces
- 1999: Illegal blockbuster done by graffiti legends Crook and Crome (Crook and Crome are two of Miami's most infamous graffiti writers. During the height of the controversy surrounding these two artists, they executed an enormous blockbuster on this wall during the daytime.)
- 2000-2001: Lebo painted the wall and was dissed by Miami graffiti writers. (Lebo Lebatard is a Miami artist with a fantastic career. He is known for painting a lot of music-inspired works of art and is the brother of the sports writer and radio host Dan Lebatard. The reason it got dissed is because the wall belonged to Miami Graffiti writers, and Lebo painted over their works. Though he is a respected artist, he's not a street artist. It probably wasn't intentional, but that's what happened.)
- 2002: Meks, Aim Crew, Freek, Ultra, Gwiz, Dam Crew, Cure, Msix, Bane, MSG, and the inkheads painted a mural for use in the movie 2 Fast 2 Furious.
- 2005 (est.): Altoids uses local graffiti artists to create a writer's album for promotional purposes.
- 2008: Primary Flight takes over the plant with permission from its current owners.
- 2009: Primary Flight redoes both the interior and exterior of the property for Art Basel.
- 2010: Primary Flight will again rework the old RC Cola Plant as part of its Art Basel installation.
Here's a video of the always in-flux walls of the RC Cola plant:
