After a quiet period following the crash in 2008, Miami’s downtown is now abuzz again with the machinery of building.
Among the latest installations: the Pérez Art Museum, a Herzog & de Meuron building designed to house the new public collection of billionaire Miami developer Jorge Pérez, a “stunningly modern construction,” according to Wallpaper magazine.
The museum is scheduled to open in December, coinciding with Art Basel and satellite fairs.
The cast concrete building references Stittsville, a form unique to Florida’s architectural vernacular, writer Pei-Ru Key noted.
With their raised, wraparound terraces and broad overhanging canopies, the houses are conceived to withstand hurricanes and floods, while providing ample shade and ventilation, Wallpaper explained.
The Pérez Art Museum Miami is the first part of the development of a “cultural corridor” known as Museum Park, which will also include the transplanting of the city’s Science Museum into a building designed by Grimshaw Architects, a sprawling bayside public park and a landscaped plaza conceived by Field Operations.
The museum will also incorporate a series of hanging vertical gardens made from local plants and vegetation, designed by Patrick Blanc, and greenery will be allowed to grow through the building’s gaps. Museum curators hope the museum will be the buzziest in the Tropics. [Wallpaper] –Emily Schmall