The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, Gets a New Home

To the casual observer, 15 years of cultural expansion in the Magic City may signal museum max-capacity, but Ellen Salpeter, director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, counters that “the city is relatively young,” and can still accommodate all manner of cultural roots. Proof: This month, the Design District welcomes the institution’s new permanent home, where it will feature the solo museum debut of Haitian-born artist Tomm El-Saieh. The 37,500-square-foot building—the inaugural stateside work of Madrid-based Aranguren + Gallegos Arquitectos—is itself an artistic feat whose seemingly three-dimensional facade pops thanks to a tapestry of triangular and wedge-shaped panels. Such verve is appropriate to the Design District, a wonderland of peppy buildings that has undergone a fairly continuous boom of its own in the past 20 years. Salpeter adds that museum and neighborhood are interwoven not only architecturally but programmatically, with events and sculpture installations planned for multiple sites in the area. “The Design District is such a partner to us—we feel that it is our campus,” she says. No doubt the collaboration will help fuel the city’s artistic growth for years to come.