MIAMI, FL.- Miami Art Museum today announced the completion of design development for its new 120,000-square-foot home in downtown Miami, scheduled to open in 2013. Designed by Herzog & de Meuron, MAM’s new home will work in concert with its natural surroundings to enhance the museum experience, and has been designed to achieve silver LEED [Leadership in Energy] certification. The new building will allow MAM to better serve its diverse, rapidly growing community, reinforcing the Museum’s role as a bridge between continents and cultures.

The new MAM will be a cultural resource commensurate with Miami’s position as a hemispheric hub and creative capital, with an impact extending internationally. Miami-Dade is the only major metropolitan area in the United States without an art museum serving the full spectrum of the community. MAM’s current building, originally designed to serve solely as an exhibition hall, lacks educational space and the facilities to maintain a collection. Since the current building opened in 1984, Miami-Dade’s population has grown to 2.4 million and Miami has been transformed from vacation destination to a world capital with a vibrant arts scene.

The completed design was unveiled in Miami yesterday, October 21, at a lecture titled "Work in Progress: A Talk with Herzog & de Meuron". Pierre de Meuron, founding partner and Christine Binswanger, partner-in-charge of the project, discussed the design in a public forum with Terence Riley, Director of Miami Art Museum.

“Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron understand MAM’s educational and civic role, and have designed a building that is extraordinarily accessible and welcoming. The design works with—not against—Miami’s climate to ensure that the building is environmentally responsible,” said Riley. “Miami’ s thriving community of artists, designers and collectors, as well as its avid and growing art-viewing public, have built a strong creative economy and driven the demand for a public museum of global stature.”

MAM will continue to work with the architects to further refine the design, with an anticipated completion date of 2012 and opening in 2013. The people of Miami Dade have approved $100 million in bonds towards the $220 million projected budget and the Museum is in the midst of a capital campaign to raise the balance.

A New MAM
The new MAM will be more than three times the size of its current facility, with 32,000 square feet of galleries, providing space for larger and more varied displays of the Museum’s rapidly growing permanent collection and special exhibitions. The museum will be an anchor of the new, 29-acre Museum Park overlooking Biscayne Bay, which will include public gardens and sculpture installations. The building will also feature an educational complex with a library, auditorium, classrooms, and workshop space, and a cafe and store. The new design will stimulate and support collection growth and enable MAM to better fulfill its role as an educational resource for the city and beyond.

Herzog & de Meuron’s design responds to Miami’s climate and the needs of a young, rising art museum. The three-story building will sit upon an elevated platform and below a canopy, both of which will extend far beyond the Museum’s walls, creating a shaded veranda and plazas. Working with local horticulturists and landscape designers, the architects will use this space to “bring the park into the museum” in new and innovative ways.

The interior of the Museum will feature a series of distinct galleries and other public rooms connected by spaces displaying the permanent collection, creating a fluid visitor experience. A flexible system of galleries will allow the visitor to step in and out of very different encounters with art. Transparency on the first and third levels of the galleries will reveal the activities within: the entry halls, auditorium, shop and café on the first level and the education center and staff offices on the third. An open-air parking garage will be located beneath the Museum on grade and surrounded by landscaping and terraces.

The permanent collection galleries will be located on the first and second level, which will also house extensive temporary exhibition galleries. While mainly oriented inward toward the exhibition space, the second floor galleries will also feature carefully placed windows to allow for natural light and views of the surrounding park and bay. The main gallery level of the new museum will appear to hover between more transparent levels, all of which will be shaded by the canopy above. A unique feature of the design, the building will include several “anchor” galleries, approximately 20 feet by 20 feet, for which the Museum will commission long-term site-specific installations.

The canopy’s overhang will create a series of outdoor spaces that bridge the museum, park, and city. The canopy will be strategically perforated to allow in light at appropriate areas, and lush vegetation cascading from the openings will transform the veranda into a garden. The microclimate under this canopy will be regulated through geothermal cooling of the exterior surfaces and by the canopy itself, one of the many “green” strategies being undertaken for the new museum. The design allows for multiple transitions, as visitors gradually move from the outside to the inside, hot to cool, humid to dry, and from the street or park to the art. A set of stairs the width of the Museum will link the building to the bay walk in Museum Park.

In recognition of MAM’s ongoing growth, the architects have designed a building which can expand organically from within without major disruptions. As MAM’s collection continues to grow, additional walls and rooms can be added. In addition, future gallery expansions can be made without interruption of the Museum’s daily activities.

Programming and Collections at MAM
MAM will remain in full operation in its current location on Flagler Street until the new building is complete. The museum will continue its focused initiative to build the collection in coordination with the expansion. Among the artists represented in MAM’s growing collection are Doug Aitken, Carlos Alfonzo, José Bedia, Christo, Chuck Close, Joseph Cornell, Marcel Duchamp, Guillermo Kuitca, Wifredo Lam, Sol LeWitt, Robert Rauschenberg, Tomas Saraceno, Lorna Simpson and Rachel Whiteread. In 2008, MAM was chosen as the museum in Florida to receive 50 works from the Herbert and Dorothy Vogel Collection, including several works by Richard Tuttle.

MAM's far-ranging vision is expressed in the breadth and depth of its exhibition program, from major solo exhibitions of artists such as Guillermo Kuitca, Sol LeWitt, Ana Mendieta, Vik Muniz, Shirin Neshat, Yinka Shonibare and Lorna Simpson, to Miami in Transition, in which Miami-based artists responded to the city’s development, and "NeoHooDoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith", exploring spirituality in artistic practices. MAM's broad curatorial mandate accommodates wide-ranging artistic approaches. A highlight of this vibrant program, "Guillermo Kuitca: Everything, Paintings and Works on Paper", 1980-2008 and a satellite exhibition "Guillermo Kuitca: Everything" (else), Large Scale Works at Freedom Tower, will be on view during Art Basel Miami Beach and will remain in the galleries through January 17, 2010.