40 AMERICANWAY
NOVEMBER 1 2008
F L O R I D A
Founded as Florida
International Univer-
sity’s student gallery
in 1977, this museum
has an eclectic collec-
tion boasting ancient
Asian and African
art, twentieth-century
sculptures and paint-
ings, 1960s-era prints,
and significant photo-
graphicworks. Though
it’saffiliatedwith theSmithsonianandcon-
sideredakey cultural hot spot, themuseum
never enjoyed adequate space andoperated
from a poorly lit administration building.
Thus, Weymouth and company designed a
freestanding structure from scratch. Open-
ing at the end of thismonth, a$19million,
46,000-square-footartshavenwillsit inthe
heartof thecampusalong theAvenueof the
Arts. Most intriguing, this will be the first
museum inFlorida to follow the leadofEu-
ropeangalleries andutilizenatural lighting
— thatwasagoal drivenby the fact that the
works were composed in, andmeant to be
viewed by, nature’s illumination. Embrac-
ing South Florida’s best-known resource,
sunlight, the architects created a series of
skylights covered with an array of mov-
able organic-looking petals. The design
scatters daylight in small doses to display
walls inaway that satisfiesmuseum-quality
Skylight in
thePatricia
&Phillip
FrostArt
Museum
Florida International
University,
UniversityPark, 10975
Southwest 17thStreet
HOURS:
Tuesday throughFriday: 10
a.m. tofivep.m.
Saturday: Noon tofivep.m.
ClosedMonday
*Note: Themuseum
gallery is not openduring
thepreparationperiod for
exhibitions.
ADMISSION:
Free
ThePatricia&PhillipFrostArtMuseum
WHERE:
Miami
THEGOAL:
Natural lighting
STATUS:
Inprogress; opensNovember 29,
2008
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Cenegenics American Airlines 08-11-08 A.pdf 8/11/2008 3:32:36 PM
