our new art museum is modeled after stiltsville

any day when you get to put on a hard hat and sign a waiver is sure to be an exciting one, if nothing else, there's always the potential thrill of something very dramatic happening and having signed away your life. Luckily, a tour of the soon-to-be Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) yielded much, much, much more to be excited about. 

If you haven't noticed the massive construction taking up most of Bicentennial Park, well, we don't blame you fully, we're so used to construction around these parts it's easy to ignore a giant multi-hundred-million-dollar complex that's going to change the cultural landscape of Miami popping up. Museum Park, as the area will be called, will be the home of the PAMM, The Museum of Science and a sprawling water-side park - if you're sitting in the park, outside, you'll be able to see the art inside the museum. More on that later. 

 

Technically, these aren't new projects, so much as a massive relocation and facelift of existing museums - and you know how we like a facelift around here. We're sure this one will look nicer after. The current Miami Art Museum is taking the first spot right off the ramp to the MacArthur Causeway but will be renamed PAMM and the current Museum of Science, by Vizcaya, will receive a new shell as well (and don't worry, they're keeping the laser light shows). 

 

PAMM is truly a milestone in the Miami art scene. As it is now, it feels a bit like there's an art scene for Basel, for some other people, but not really a museum culture for the true locals. That's not to say that the people who work so hard to put together programming year round aren't doing a really nice job, it's a fault of facility and they simply didn't have the right one. Now they do. 

 

The building, by Herzog and de Meuron of the Bird's Nest in the Beijing Olympics and our own 1111 Lincoln Road (that's kind of a short sell, they've also done projects akin to this one like Tate Modern in London, another museum on the water), is inspired by our own Stiltsville - it's more than inspired, it's a giant, blown-up version of the famed rickety water bungalows. 

 

On Tuesday, I took a tour of the construction site about a year away from opening, with museum director Thom Collins and a group of influencers who'd donated money, were going to donate money, or in one specific case, donated a collection of 20th century photography for the permanent collection. He told me a few things that I think everyone should know about the museum: 

 

There's a bar that opens onto a deck with a view of Government Cut that you can't get anywhere else. Actually, the museum is, besides a home for some amazing artwork and have the potential to really open up a conversation and visual education for the city, it's going to be the most stunning place to look at the city itself. There's a view of Miami in every, single pace - except the bathrooms-  which is basically unheard of in the concrete heavy, window minimal design of most museums. The spaces go from light and wide open to more closed, but no matter the space there is a view to the Bay, the Arsht Center, the AAA, the MacArthur, the Freedom Tower, the Brickell skyline, PortMiami. A visual education indeed. We mentioned there's a bar right? 

 

There are 60 foot tall hydroponic plants hanging from the structure and a landscaping design by the same brains behind the Highline in New York - by my standards the most well received public art project in the country. Imagine seaweed swaying around Stiltsville but magnified. There will also be plants growing up through the parking garage (which, by the way, parks 600 cars - don't you worry) and the largest single pane of hurricane glass in the world. That piece of hurricane glass, regardless of the corners of the building that seem like their floating and nothing to get in the way of the view, makes this is future safest building in Miami during a hurricane. May we kindly suggest making use of that bar and that glass and throwing hurricane parties? 

 

The building, today, is about 75% done and they're anticipating a late September/early October turnover date - meaning it will be ready for next year's Basel. If are at all interested in philanthropy, parties, art, architecture or Miami I recommend you try and find a way, if you can, to get involved. They throw parties, they have networking events, they hook you up with Basel passes, there's quality exhibits and a massive permanent collection, a huge education space, a film screening area, an amphitheater and they're generally really nice people who let me tag along, sign a waiver and wade through the construction and puddles to see what, I can confidently say, will be very, very nice when complete.