With the impending move of the old Miami Science Museum into the brand new Frost Museum of Science, there are no plans yet to relocated the iconic and very historic Pan American Airlines Globe that is the highlight of the museum's lobby and was once the centerpiece of Pan Am's seaplane base on dinner key. There are, however, no shortage of options.
If a donor comes forward with the cash, it could be moved to the new museum's open-air lobby during the old museum's demolition, where an air-conditioned glass cube would need to be constructed with the proper foundations to hold the 6,500 pound steel monolith. The globe could go to HistoryMiami, which has a large collection of Pan Am artifacts, or in the lobby of county hall. Although longstanding plans for the old museum site are to hand the land over to VIzcaya Museum & Gardens, which intends to demolish the building and return it to its original agricultural use as part of the Vizcaya estate, some county commissioners think the building should perhaps be kept, in which case the globe could just stay there. The globe could even, in theory, go back to its old home at the seaplane base, which is now City Hall, and where the original foundations still exist under the commission chamber, although that is unlikely says architect Richard Heisenbottle who did the City Hall restoration. Wherever it goes, say historians, Pan Am acolytes, and the Miami Herald, "the globe deserves a proper stage where Miamians can admire it."
· Miami Science Museum ponders future of Pan Am Globe [Herald]
· The Globe Over Time [Miami Science Museum]
· Miami Science Museum Pan Am Globe [Facebook]
· The World According to Trippe [Pan Am Historical Foundation]
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