Herzog & de Meuron’s “futuristic” museum

South Florida is awaiting the opening of the Pérez Art Museum Miami, scheduled for December, with bated breath.

The excitement has as much to do with the art collection as the structure itself, which includes a “futuristic, Stiltsville-inspired frame,” according to Ocean Drive. The building by the renowned Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron will also feature 70-foot-tall hanging gardens, a louvered canopy roof and the world’s largest impact-resistant windows.

“With Miami being an international city very much known for its beaches and weather, locals and tourists alike will most appreciate that architects Herzog & de Meuron have designed a building that will ‘bring the park into the museum’ in new and innovative ways,” museum director Thom Collins was quoted as saying in the luxury magazine.

“Not only does the structure sit below a canopy to create a shaded veranda and plazas where visitors can relax, but the galleries incorporate carefully placed windows to allow for natural light and amazing views of the surrounding park and bay.”

The new museum, the product of a $40-million gift from billionaire Related Group president Jorge M. Pérez, satirized in the Tom Wolfe novel Back to Blood, will feature 20th- and 21st-century Latin American art and be the first of three hugely-anticipated new structures in downtown Miami.

Located in bayfront Museum Park, PAMM will eventually be joined by the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science and One Thousand Museum, a luxury condo skyscraper designed by Pritzker Prize winner Zaha Hadid. [Ocean Drive] — Emily Schmall