VERO BEACH — The Vero Beach Museum of Art’s renovation and expansion aims to fit in seamlessly with the vibrant surroundings of Riverside Park and provide views of the Indian River Lagoon.
With its planned gardens, galleries, terraces, and courtyards, the “museum in the garden” has reached $110 million toward the $126 million capital campaign goal, according to the Museum’s website, and nearly 50 donors have contributed to the campaign since the Nov. 7 groundbreaking ceremony.
This week, crews from Reinforced Structures, Inc., were mixing oyster and Florida beach shells in a concrete mixer truck to pour a mock-up wall on the west side of the property.
The mock-up allows Turner Construction Company to evaluate the material that will set the standard and be used to build 12-inch-thick walls for the new museum.
The current museum building sits at 7 feet above sea level, and the land around it is only 3 feet above sea level, making it susceptible to storm surges, museum Executive Director Brady Roberts told the Vero Beach City Council in 2025.
The 2004 hurricanes had a maximum storm surge of 6 feet, a scare the museum staff has not forgotten. The new plateau is expected to be 9 feet above sea level.
What’s planned at the new Vero Beach Museum of Art
Design of the new building — created by Allied Works of Portland, Oregon, and Brooklyn, New York — will fit in with the park and lagoon around it.
The 22,000-square-foot collections building will stay in place, while the rest of the museum will be demolished in the spring of 2027, Project Superintendent Sarah Lippai for Turner Construction Co. told TCPalm.
The area will be replaced with landscaping and a retention pond to incorporate the demolished portion of the city-owned property to Riverside Park.
Unknown Studio Landscape Architecture and Urban Design has designed the gardens to embrace the Florida native landscape of the barrier island.
The new construction includes 22,000 square feet of gallery space — more than doubling the existing gallery space — and 14,400 square feet of terraces and courtyards; totaling 68,000 square feet of new construction.
The new entryway to the museum will open to a courtyard; to the right a modern and contemporary art gallery for larger pieces will be built. This entire first floor will be free to the public and will also include a kids zone and cafe.
An education wing, ceramics center, community room with access to rooftop event terraces and an auditorium area are all part of the new design.
The museum through the years
The nonprofit museum organization — established in 1986 at 3001 Riverside Park Drive — was initially named the Center for the Arts.
Then under the direction of executive director Tim Allen, the center’s doors opened to the public Jan. 31, 1986, and “Trevan’s Arch,” the iconic large metal sculpture near the north entrance to the building, was unveiled.
The first exhibit at the Center for the Arts was by American master painters William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri, composed primarily of works done between 1890 and 1950, according to a Jan. 25, 1986 Indian River Press Journal article.
On July 1, 2002, the center was officially renamed Vero Beach Museum of Art to distinguish itself from other centers in Vero Beach and to enhance the museum’s stature and name recognition.
Throughout the years, an innumerable number of masterpieces have graced the walls of the museum including pieces from Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Henri Matisse, Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier-Bresson to name a few.
The Museum’s current exhibition, running through Oct. 25, is by multimedia artist James Prosek in the Holmes Gallery.
The museum’s Stark Gallery features “Museum in the Garden: Envisioning the New VBMA.”
There, guests can view architectural designs by Allied Works in collaboration with Unknown Studio Landscape Architecture and Urban Design for the museum’s 90,000-square-foot project.
Kaila Jones is a visual journalist for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers. You can reach her at kaila.jones@tcpalm.com and can view some of her recent work here.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Florida art museum undergoes extensive renovation, expansion
Reporting by Kaila Jones, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Kaila Jones, Treasure Coast Newspapers | USA TODAY Network
