laza Las Americas Inc. is known for putting quirky touches in its namesake shopping center in Puerto Rico, such as sculptures representing the Caribbean island’s voluptuous flora and marine life. So for the International Council of Shopping Centers Spring Convention in Las Vegas in May 2007, the San Juan, Puerto Rico-based company asked ID Group and Stak Design Inc. to create a booth that would stand out as much as its mall, by capturing the lush sensuality of its tropical homeland.

San Juan-based ID Group and Stak Design of Carrollton, TX, started with an 8-by-85-foot header that curved around the 2,100-square-foot space like a breaking wave. Made of metallic paper stretched over box-frame panels, the header had inkjet graphics of palm trees, exotic fish, and coral reefs applied in fluorescent-bright hues. Below the header ran a serpentine 8-foot-high wall constructed of plywood and masonite that resembled a rectangular sand dune. The illusion was created by applying metallic inkjet graphics depicting drifting sand to the wall, then shining spotlights on them from an overhead truss to mimic the shimmer of a beach under the sun’s glare.

When attendees entered the booth, it was like stepping into an open beach house. While they waited to confer with Plaza’s staff in one of the booth’s five meeting rooms, they relaxed on teak furniture with sage-green cushions, surrounded by foliage indigenous to Puerto Rico. The interior’s illumination came from the truss-mounted spotlights and ambient light reflected off a 10-by-70-foot part-fabric/part-metallic-paper back wall imprinted with a picture of the Caribbean so realistic, you had to resist cannonballing into its imaginary depth. By integrating these geographic elements unique to its location, Plaza Las Americas set its exhibit apart from other generic exhibits — and made visiting it as enjoyable as a day at the beach.e

Client: Plaza Las Americas Inc., San Juan, Puerto Rico
Design: ID Group, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Fabrication:Stak Design Inc., Carrollton, TX
Size: 30-by-70-feet (2,100 square feet)
Estimated Cost: $285,000
Estimated Cost/Square Foot: $136