MIAMI, FL.- At a specially convened public meeting, the Miami Art Museum’s Architect Selection Panel voted unanimously to engage the internationally celebrated firm of Herzog & de Meuron as designers of the Museum’s new and expanded facility, planned for Museum Park. Panel members included MAM Board Chair Aaron Podhurst; trustees Mireille Chancy-Gonzalez, Rafael Miyar, and Gloria Scharlin; and Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs Director Michael Spring.

Scheduled to open in late 2010, the new building, estimated at 125,000 square feet in size, will occupy four acres of land in Museum Park (formerly called Bicentennial Park). Along with the Miami Museum of Science and Planetarium, which is also relocating to the Park, the new MAM is a central element of the City of Miami’s master plan for the refurbishment and renovation of the Park and the re-vitalization of Miami’s downtown area.

Aaron Podhurst states, “The selection of an architect is a milestone moment for this project. We are delighted by the support we have received from Mayor Carlos Alvarez of Miami-Dade County and Mayor Manny Diaz of the City of Miami, as well as from the rest of our community. This encouragement has energized the Museum’s commitment to move ahead with this exciting project as quickly as possible in order to maximize the resources granted to us by the voters of Miami-Dade County in 2004, when they approved the general-obligation bond.”

Based in Basel, Switzerland, and with projects across Europe, in North America, and in Asia, Herzog & de Meuron is known for designs that are at once highly inventive and sensitive to the site, geography, and culture of the region for which the building is planned. Among their most widely recognized museum projects are the transformation of a power plant into Tate Modern, in London (2000); the de Young Museum, in San Francisco (2005); and the expansion of the Walker Art Center, in Minneapolis (2005). In 2001, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron were awarded the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize for their body of work.

MAM Board President Mary Frank states, “The trustees of the Miami Art Museum could not be happier with the Architect Selection Panel’s choice of Herzog & de Meuron to design the Museum's new home. The firm has demonstrated a consistently high level of intelligence and creative energy in the execution of a wide range of projects, including a number of museums. Herzog & de Meuron also has proven managerial skills, with an excellent track record for simultaneously handling diverse and complex projects around the world.”

Prior to convening the Architect Selection Panel, the Museum’s trustees formed an Architecture Research Committee, chaired by Museum Trustee Rose Ellen Meyerhoff Greene. With the assistance of the Museum’s project consultants, the Paratus Group, the Research Committee initially considered the work of 75 architects. The six-monthlong research process culminated in a visit by committee members to 26 buildings by 12 architects in 13 cities and five countries.

Creation of the new MAM will be a complex undertaking, requiring knowledge of and sensitivity to the changing natural, built, and cultural landscapes of Miami; the diversity of the Museum’s growing audiences; and MAM’s needs as its collection and programs evolve.

MAM Director Terence Riley adds, “In seeking an architect, we were looking for the perfect blend of experience and innovation. Herzog & de Meuron has an incredible track record of successfully completed museums, coupled with a seemingly boundless design vision that has insured that each is unique to its circumstances. Anyone who has visited the many splendid museums they have designed worldwide, knows that Herzog & de Meuron can not only meet the challenge of building a new MAM, but will also create a stellar design for the city, the county, and, indeed, the nation.”

Jacques Herzog, founding partner, Herzog & de Meuron, says “We are excited to work on a museum project in Miami, which is such a vibrant mix of cultures. The region’s extraordinary role as an eminent international crossroads will inspire the programming and design of the new site, enabling the creation of a facility that is unique among the ever-expanding number of new museums worldwide.”