By Tracy Belcher, Miami Art Museum

The new Miami Art Museum, which will be an anchor of the 29-acre Museum Park overlooking Biscayne Bay, is already 20 feet out of the ground! To document its rapid progress, MAM has set up a live webcam with a view of the Museum Park site, updating every 15 minutes. MAM Director Thom Collins also introduced a personal video blog series with a behind-the-scene tour of the construction site. Each video blog entry showcases the advancement of the site, as well as interesting facts about the architecture and construction process.

Museum Park is Miami’s urban redesign vision for the area now known as Bicentennial Park. This vital downtown park, a catalyst for the transformation of the district, is central to efforts to strengthen greater Miami’s momentum as an emerging global capital. A vibrant mix of green space and cultural offerings, in addition to the landmark new facilities for MAM the Park will also be the future home of the Miami Science Museum.

Designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the new Miami Art Museum will offer 200,000 square feet of programmable space, including 120,000 square feet of interior space – more than three times that of the Museum’s current facility. It will also include approximately 80,000 square feet of exterior program space for the display of works of art, educational activities, relaxation and dining. This expansion will provide room for larger and more varied displays of the Museum’s collection and special exhibitions. The building will also house an educational complex planned to foster active learning about and through art and artmaking, with a library, auditorium, classrooms, art and digital media workshop spaces; and a café and store. The new design will stimulate and support collection growth, enable MAM to better fulfill its role as the principal visual arts educational resource in the region, and support the institution’s expanded mission to serve local populations as a unique social forum.

The new MAM is scheduled to be completed in 2013, transforming Museum Park into a central destination on Miami’s cultural map. The new MAM will promote progressive arts education, build community cohesiveness, and contribute substantially to downtown revitalization.