Written By | Fashion and Design Desk
Raised on a thin concrete plane to meet resiliency guidelines, the 22,000-square-foot addition will add galleries, shaded courtyards and an outdoor film screen to Collins Park.
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MIAMI BEACH
The Bass museum in Miami Beach has a long history of layering architecture on architecture, and its next chapter has now been drawn. Los Angeles-based studio Johnston Marklee unveiled designs this week for an expansion on the southwest corner of the museum's campus in Collins Park, as reported by Dezeen on October 21.
Two pavilions on a thin plane
The scheme covers a 22,000-square-foot area with both indoor and outdoor space. Its basic idea is clear and spare: two rectangular pavilions sit on a thin concrete plane that is raised off the ground. Courtyards pass underneath, so the structure does not block the park so much as hover over it.
The elevated platform is described as meeting resiliency guidelines. Dezeen noted this is likely connected to Miami-Dade's sea-level flooding risks, though the article presents that link as its own inference rather than a documented requirement. Either way, lifting a building off the ground in Miami Beach is a pragmatic gesture with a meaningful side benefit: it frees the ground level for shaded public space.
Surfaces, light and screens
The upper walls of the pavilions are sheer white, while ground-level walls are more textured. Perforations appear at the top of the pavilions and on the walls that separate the covered courtyards from the street, a detail that can filter sun and breeze in a hot climate. A backlit oculus at the center illuminates the passage beneath the structure at night.
Inside, the pavilions will hold the primary exhibition space, with white-wall galleries, rectangular windows and a skylight over the pavilion nearest the Isozaki building. Landscaped garden areas will connect to Collins Park's existing trees. One blank pavilion wall will serve as a screen for outdoor film screenings, turning the facade into a stage after dark.
Building on three generations
The Bass occupies a building designed by Russell Pancoast as a library, with Dezeen placing the design in the 1930s and also quoting architect Mark Lee referring to Pancoast's 1942 Art Deco design. The museum opened there in 1964 and was later expanded by Arata Isozaki. Johnston Marklee's addition sits as a third layer on the campus, and the firm's language, which is pared-back and white, aims to complement the existing buildings rather than imitate them.
Founding partners Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee both commented on the project. Johnston called it "a transformative project that will increase public access to the museum's programs and artworks." Lee said, "We are thrilled to reimagine the southwest corner of Collins Park for The Bass."
A museum that spills outdoors
What stands out in the proposal is how much of its budget of ideas is spent outside the galleries. Courtyards, gardens, a passage beneath the pavilions and an open-air screen all treat the museum's perimeter as program. In a city where outdoor life is part of daily culture, that matters. It suggests a museum that expects visitors to arrive on foot from the park, linger in the shade, and encounter art without a ticket.
It also reflects a wider shift in museum design, where public access is increasingly framed as a design goal rather than only a policy. Johnston's remark about increasing public access to programs and artworks points directly at that aim.
What we do not yet know
The published material leaves important questions open. Dezeen's report does not state a construction schedule, a budget or funding sources, and it names no specific materials beyond concrete. The images are labeled only as Johnston Marklee's Bass designs. Until the museum and the architects release more detail, the timeline and cost remain unknown, and this article does not guess at them.
What this means for you
For visitors, the main takeaway is a likely shift in how the Collins Park campus works: more ground-level shaded space, more free-to-wander outdoor areas and an evening film venue on the facade. For anyone interested in architecture, it is a closely watched example of how coastal cities are designing for flood risk, by lifting buildings and using the space beneath them for public life instead of treating elevation as an obstacle.
For homeowners and small developers in low-lying areas, the broader lesson is that resilience and generosity are not opposites. A raised building can create covered outdoor rooms, ventilation and shade, benefits that are valuable even apart from flood protection.
Looking ahead
As approvals, funding and a schedule come into focus, the Bass expansion will be one to watch. Its restraint, two white boxes, a concrete plane and a lot of open air, is the kind of idea that tends to age well in a climate that rewards simplicity. For now, it offers an early look at how one of Miami Beach's cultural anchors plans to grow without losing its place in the park.
