New Miami Art Museum to Feature Vertical Gardens

ArquitectonicaGEO is a new landscape architecture practice led by Laurinda Spear, a founding principal of architecture firm Arquitectonica.

by Mairi Beautyman -- Interior Design, 8/8/2008

The new Miami Art Museum, designed by acclaimed architects Herzog & de Meuron will open in 2011 to much fanfare. Facilities -- on 40 acres of abandoned waterfront property on Biscayne Bay -- include 32,000 square feet of new galleries, an educational complex with a library, auditorium and classrooms, a café, and a museum shop.

Now it looks like a star-powered team is also behind the landscape. The project's extensive plantings, lawns, and public garden will be head up by ArquitectonicaGEO, a new landscape architecture practice launched by Laurinda Spear, a founding principal of the award-winning architecture firm Arquitectonica.

ArquitectonicaGEO will collaborate with Herzog & de Meuron, as well as the French botanist and planted-wall artist Patrick Blanc, considered the inventor of the vertical garden, to tackle four acres of land in Museum Park (formerly known as Bicentennial  Park). The team will use sustainable planting techniques for a terrace with a trellis roof and a sculptural garden. The terrace will include a system for hanging green vegetation.

"Our design contributes a tremendous amount to the new development in terms of sustainability and green thinking," says Spear.

Rendering courtesy of ArquitectonicaGEO.