The Bass Museum of Art has released plans to expand by Arata Isozaki and David Gauld, the same team that designed the museum's last expansion between 1998 and 2002. The design fills in two of the museum's exterior spaces—a courtyard often used for parties, and a dramatic patio area under the upstairs gallery that's not really used for much at all—and reconfigures various areas of the building's interior.
The monumental ramp is gone, replaced by a contemporary staircase that tries its hardest to be grand while not taking up much space. The rest of the ramp's old square footage (it is rather huge) is to be taken up by four large gallery spaces split over the building's two levels. The amount of programmable space will increase by 47%. There are new classrooms, and a youth creativity center. Interior symmetrical spaces, like the lobby, are becoming not so. More of everything is being more efficiently packed into the same building footprint at the expense of architectural drama. The Historic Preservation Board will review the plans this month. And no, this is not an April Fools Day joke.
· Bass Museum Submits Plan to Renovate and Expand its Facility on Collins Avenue [The Next Miami]
· Bass Museum of Art coverage [Curbed Miami]