Prez Art Museum Miami

Building
Prez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), designed by
Pritzker Prize-winning architects Herzog & de
Meuron, offers 200,000 square feet of
programmable space for the display of works of
art, educational activities, relaxation and dining.
Herzog & de Meuron's design for PAMM is highly responsive to the city's climate and
the needs of a young, rising art museum. The three-story building sits upon an elevated
platform and below a canopy, both of which extend far beyond the museum's walls,
creating a shaded veranda and plazas. Working with local and international landscape
designers and horticulturists, the architects use this space to bring the park into the
museum in new and innovative ways.
The new Prez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) is located in Museum Park, part of the
redeveloping downtown waterfront on Biscayne Bay. Its direct neighbours are the
Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science and a major freeway, connecting mainland
Miami with Miami Beach. Simultaneously oriented towards the park, the water and the
city, the new PAMM is an open and inviting structure from all sides alike.
The interior of the museum comprises a series of distinct galleries and other public areas
connected by a series of interstitial spaces displaying the permanent collection, allowing
for a fluid visitor experience. Transparency on the first and third levels of the galleries
reveals the public and semi-public functions within: the entry halls, auditorium, shop and
caf on the first level and the education center and staff offices on the third. An open-air
parking garage is located beneath the museum and surrounded by landscaping and
terraces.
The permanent collection galleries are located on the first and, principally, the second
level, which also house extensive temporary exhibition galleries. While mainly oriented
inward so as to focus on the art, the second floor galleries incorporate carefully placed
windows to allow for natural light and views of the surrounding park and bay. The main
gallery level of the museum appears to hover between more transparent levels, all of
which are shaded by the canopy above. The canopy's overhang creates a series of outdoor
spaces that bridge the museum, park and city. The design allows for multiple transitions,

as visitors gradually move from the outside to the inside, hot to cold, humid to dry, and
from the street or park to the art. A set of stairs the width of the museum links the
building to the bay walk in Museum Park. In recognition of PAMM's role as an emerging
and rapidly growing art museum, the architects have designed a building that can expand
organically from within without major disruptions.
As PAMM's collection continues to grow, additional walls and rooms can be added within
the fluid interior volumes. In addition, discrete gallery expansions can be made, at a later
date, without interruption of the Museum's daily activities. Various options for a larger
25,000 square foot expansion within the museum's site have also been explored in
support of future growth.

WALKING THROUGH THE MUSEUM

The Miami Herald described the three-story building at its opening as combining "a
subtropical aesthetic inspired by the natural South Florida landscape and folksy wood
construction."
As visitors approach the ground-level entrance, they are greeted with astonishing
hanging gardens that are suspended from a slatted roof. The gardens also are works of art;

The platform provides a comfortable outdoor temperature by natural means. The

intermediate space has the ecological benefit of minimizing the sun's impact on the
building's envelope and reducing the cost of controlling the environment for artworks.
For the galleries different modes of display are deployed in a non-linear sequence,
allowing visitors to map their own experiences of the Museum's collection and physical
space.
The permanent collection galleries are located on the first and second levels. The latter of
which also houses special exhibitions. Offering natural light and views of the surrounding
park and bay, outward-facing exhibition spaces alternate with more enclosed galleries
that focus on single subjects.

Art is displayed throughout the entire building, including the garden and the parking

garage. A mostly glazed envelope on the first and third levels reveals the public and semipublic functions within: entry halls, auditorium, shop, and caf on the first level,
education facilities and offices on the third.

ARCHITECTS
Pierre de Meuron (born 1950)
Jacques Herzog (born 1950)
Both attending the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zrich. They are
perhaps best known for their conversion of the giant Bankside Power Station in London
to the new home of the Tate Museum of Modern Art (2000). Jacques Herzog and Pierre
de Meuron have been visiting professors at the Harvard University Graduate School of
Design since 1994 and professors at ETH Zrich since 1999.
Herzog & de Meuron received international attention very early in their career with the
Blue House in Oberwil, Switzerland (1980); the Stone House in Tavole, Italy (1988); and
the Apartment Building along a Party Wall in Basel (1988). The firms breakthrough
project was the Ricola Storage Building in Laufen, Switzerland (1987). Renown in the
United States came with Dominus Winery in Yountville, California (1998). The Goetz
Collection, a Gallery for a Private Collection of Modern Art in Munich (1992), stands at
the beginning of a series of internationally acclaimed museum buildings such as the
Kppersmhle Museum for the Grothe Collection in Duisburg, Germany (1999).
In many projects the architects have worked together with artists, an eminent example of
that practice being the collaboration with Rmy Zaugg, Thomas Ruff and with Michael
Craig-Martin.
Professionally, the Herzog & de Meuron partnership has grown to become an office with
over 120 people worldwide. In addition to their headquarters in Basel, they have offices
in London, Munich and San Francisco. Herzog has explained, We work in teams, but the
teams are not permanent. We rearrange them as new projects begin. All of the work
results from discussions between Pierre and me, as well as our other partners, Harry
Gugger and Christine Binswanger. The work by various teams may involve many
different talents to achieve the best results which is a final product called architecture by
Herzog & de Meuron.

Architectual review

The Basel-based firms latest foray into Miamis unique milieu has produced the new
Prez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), an inspired response to citys subtropical climate
and to its waterfront. Slender concrete columns support a deck raised over ground-level
parking and a canopy that soars 23 metres high to shade a three-storey block of galleries
and support spaces. The museums previous home was a hermetic Philip Johnson bunker
that turned its back on the city; by contrast this new structure feels fluidly open and
transparent. It reaches out through landscaped terraces to engage the bay, a string of
public parks, the towers along Biscayne Boulevard, and its near neighbour, Grimshaw
Architects Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science, due to open in 2016.
PAMM is named after its lead donor, Jorge M Prez, a developer with a passion for
architecture. Terence Riley, who left his job as chief curator of architecture and design at
MoMA to direct the museum from 2006 to 2010, was chiefly responsible for the selection
of Herzog & de Meuron and helped shape the programme. Riley made it clear he didnt
want an icon, and this was welcome news to the architects, who have designed 14
museums ranging from the intimate Sammlung Goetz near Munich to the huge Tate
Modern and were eager for a fresh challenge. Jacques Herzog dismissed the Art Deco
buildings that are a signature feature of Miami as decorated boxes with no great
relationship or exchange between inside and outside. Openness literal and symbolic
was a principal concern for the client and Christine Binswanger, the senior partner who
headed the architectural team. The museum was to grow from 3,500 to nearly 14,000 sqm
and become a new kind of institution, with a mission to educate, and connect a
burgeoning art scene to the rich cultural diversity of the city. The goal was to create a
destination where casual visitors will stop by to take in the views or have a coffee in the
park, and stay on to explore the art.
The big challenge was to create a balance of openness and protection from heat, humidity
and storms. Different options were considered but the essential features came early: a
platform above storm surges and a canopy to shade the buildings, the terrace that wraps
around it, and a portico facing east over the bay. A towering structure that could have felt
intimidating has an almost ad hoc character around the edges, where the wood battens
bolted to concrete beams thin out. Greenheart wood is left unfinished so it will weather to
a silvery tone. The battens are laid at different heights, running east-west, or north-south.
They block the sun but allow bars of light to play over the columns, paving and
projecting concrete walls. Vertical planters by French horticulturalist Patrick Blanc are
suspended from the canopy, contributing to the cooler microclimate in the shaded area.

Floor plans - click to expand

Landscaping is integral to the architecture. Palms shade a terrace stepping down to the
water and a city park, as well as a garden to the west that will be shared by the art and
science museums. As you approach PAMM through this greenbelt, it appears surprisingly
fragile, as though the next hurricane might sweep it away. Close up, however, you realise
how tough and rooted it is. The columns distribute the load evenly. The massive concrete
bays that enclose the storage areas at the north-west corner and five second-floor galleries
jut out beyond the reinforced glazing. Their surfaces are chiselled on the outside and
smoothly finished within or clad in drywall to facilitate the installation of exhibitions.
We wanted the building to be rough, to feel real, inside and outside and not just invent
another interesting cladding, says Binswanger. Concrete as a structure and a finish has
rarely been done around here, and even less for museums where it has to be precise and
pristine.
The sense of materiality is pervasive. You enter through a double set of massive teak
doors. Gallery floors are polished aggregate or quarter-sawn oak with a scored finish, and
recessed fluorescent strips in the concrete ceilings lead you forward. Surfaces are tactile,
from the oak-lined lift cabins to the architect-designed stools and benches, and the

upholstered, wood-backed seating alcoves that encourage visitors to linger.

Sheltering both indoor and outdoor spaces, the oversailing roof gives the museum a fluid,
almost disembodied appearance. The first two levels house galleries while the third floor
is devoted to officesand educational facilities - click to expand

The high-ceilinged lobby that runs the full width of the building offers a taste of what is
to come. From the reception desk you can glimpse the galleries beyond. Changing
installations are shown to the left; a shop to the right leads to a caf that opens onto the
portico. As a former curator, Riley understood the varied needs for display, and asked the
architects to design a fluid configuration of versatile but distinctive galleries, rather than
the conventional enfilade of white cubes. Selections from the modest collection are in
open spaces that eddy around enclosed galleries of different sizes. The smaller, naturally
lit rooms may house a single work or thematic show; more ambitious exhibitions are
presented in a linked trio of spacious galleries on the second level. Its a layout that
invites discovery and requires no signs to orient the visitor.
Cushioned wooden bleachers link the first and second levels, with an open staircase
running up one side. Unlike conventional museum auditoriums, it is constantly in use, for

lectures, talks, concerts and movies that can be projected on the front wall. It also
provides one of the many surprises along the architectural promenade that weaves
through and around the museum. The top-floor offices, classrooms, library and
boardroom are set back behind a deck with sweeping views from all four sides. In
demand for weddings, receptions and conferences, these spaces generate income while
cementing the role of the museum in city life. We love civic museums, says Herzog.
They should be as open as possible to a variety of attitudes and forms. PAMM has
shown its appeal by drawing as many paying visitors in its first four months of operation
as were expected in the first year.

Sections - click to expand

Still more remarkable, it is a model of sustainability, employing mainly passive strategies,

with the canopy and planting make a big contribution to climate control. As Reyner
Banham explained in Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment, a pool of shade
around a building can greatly reduce the need for air conditioning, and visitors are happy
to sit out under the portico as they did on their home porches in simpler times. The
architects took the same approach in their Miami Beach parking structure, providing fresh
air and clear orientation in contrast to the claustrophobic labyrinths motorists are
generally condemned to use.
For Thomas Collins, who followed Rileys path in leaving MoMA to become director of
PAMM, theres an opportunity to exhibit unfamiliar names, celebrate African-American
and Latin American artists, and give those communities a sense of involvement.
Revisionist and inclusive, the museum can become a point of focus and pride for a
fragmented, multicultural metropolis that, like LA, has yet to forge a strong civic identity.
It can also raise the bar for architecture in southern Florida and for the reimagining of
museums worldwide.

The distinctive vertical planting was devised by French horticulturalist Patrick Blanc.
Timber battens clad the roof, thinning out around its edges to create a more ad hoc
rhythm - click to expand