ICA Miami to break ground on Design District museum

The Institute for Contemporary Art will break ground on its new permanent museum in the Miami Design District later this month. 

The 37,500-square-foot building, designed by Spanish firm Aranguren & Gallegos Arquitectos and local architect Wolfberg Alvarez, will include 20,000 square feet of exhibit galleries and a 15,000-square-foot sculpture garden when completed in mid-2017.

Since ICA’s main benefactors — billionaire auto dealer and his wife, Norman and Irma Braman, and Design District developer and Dacra President and CEO Craig Robins — unveiled plans for the project last year, the museum has met stiff resistance from homeowners and residents in the historic Buena Vista neighborhood.

To accommodate the sculpture garden that would front the entrance of the new museum, three duplexes, located on Northeast 42nd Street between Northeast First Avenue and North Miami Avenue, will be demolished. They were purchased by the Bramans and Robins between December of last year and January for a combined $1.6 million.

The southern facade of the museum will feature a layer of interlocking metal triangles and lighted panels that will change color, according to a press release. It will also serve as the entrance. The northern facade will have a curtain wall system of windows to allow for natural light, and the interior space will include multipurpose gallery spaces and work spaces.

“The design of the new building responds to the needs of an energetic, experimental art museum that requires spatial flexibility,” Alex Gartenfeld, deputy director and chief curator of ICA Miami, said in the release. – Katherine Kallergis