Grimshaw Architects Win Commission To Design New Miami Science Museum

The London based firm Grimshaw Architects has won the commission to design Miami's new $275 million Science Museum in Bicentennial Park. The Coral Gables firm Rodriguez and Quiroga won the spot for "executive architect," which will oversee construction documentation for permitting and building.

The 200,000 square foot Science Museum (with 25,000 square feet dedicated to the Historical Museum of Southern Florida) will be built next to the proposed $208 million Miami Art Museum, which will be designed by the equally revered Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre De Meuron.

The Science Museum is scheduled to open 2011, a year after the opening of the Art Museum. According to the Miami Herald, the Science Museum will "include an aquarium spanning three floors, with mangroves and seagrass at the top, a tropical coral reef in the middle, and large sea creatures such as sharks and rays on the ground level...rooftop observatory, a 300-seat planetarium and a wildlife center, all on the roof."

When these museums kick in and join the Carnival Center and the American Airlines Arena, who wouldn't want to live downtown? Talk about an urban cultural mecca, these amenities will propel Miami into the top ten cities in the world and cement its claim to being the "Gateway to the Americas."

5 Architects Make Cut to Design Miami Science Museum

Five world renowned architectural firms made the cut to design Miami's new Science Museum along Biscayne Bay. They are:

• Grimshaw Architects
  This UK company is the same firm that designed the enclosed baseball stadium shown at the right of the MVB home page. Shown on the right is a building they designed for the Eden Project (2001).

• Steven Holl Architects
  Named America's Best Architect by Time Magazine in 2001, we particularly like his Busan Cinema Complex in Pusan, Korea.

• Polshek Partnership Architects
  Shown at the right is the New York firm's re-imagining of the Hayden Planetarium for New York's American Museum of Natural History Rose Center for Earth and Space.

• Wilkinson Eyre Architects
  Of the five firms, this UK company's design for the New Crystal Palace Exhibition Hall and Sculpture Garden in London intrigues us the most. Wrapped in glass, photovoltaic cells are embedded in the "skin" to provide solar power while "gill-like" louvres provide natural ventilation.

• Zaha Hadid Architects
  This UK firm, headed by Ms. Zaha Hadid, an Iraqi born British citizen, is one of the bright lights of deconstructivist architecture. Her work is right out of a Frank Herbert "Dune" novel, something very other-worldly and a whole lot of fun to look at. The building pictured to the right is her design for the Nuragic and Contemporary Art Museum in Cagliari, Italy (2007). She is the only one of the five who has won the celebrated Pritzker Prize in architecture (2004).

Three other firms were chosen to submit proposals for the "executive architect" role. They are:

• Burns & McDonnell
• Leo A Daly
• Rodriguez & Quiroga

These eight firms were culled from 35 submissions. Final architect selection is scheduled for May 1st and 2nd in what is promised to be a "transparent process" conducted in a public forum. There is no mention in the museum's press release whether or not the public's opinion will really be considered. At least it won't be left in the hands of one person to choose the architect as it was for architects for our new art museum. Yes, we're still disappointed Gehry didn't get chosen for that project. And, yes, Herzog and de Meuron (2001 Pritzker Prize) are more than worthy and we look forward to seeing what they whipped up for the art museum, but we have a jones for Gehry-- despite his disappointing design for Miami Beach's New World Symphony. We are also disappointed that not one local architectural firm made the cut when there are so many worthy ones.

UpDate (5/2/07): Grimshaw wins.