Historical museum joins Bicentennial Park plan
miamitodaynews.com Week of June 10, 2004By Susan Stabley
The Historical Museum of Southern Florida hopes to move in with the Miami Museum of Science & Space Transit Planetarium at the planned Museum Park Miami in Bicentennial Park.
The partnership has developed over the past 10 days, according to historical museum interim president Robert McCammon. A partnership between the two museums would lead to joint exhibits and shared resources that would cut expenses for both, said Mr. McCammon, a former board member of the science museum and its president during a search that netted current leader Gillian Thomas.
"We'd bring some money with our project," he said Monday, adding that financial specifics are still being worked out.
The historical museum had wanted to move into the historic Freedom Tower in Miami, Mr. McCammon said, but plans didn't work out. Instead, he said, a General Obligation Bond the county hopes to put on the November ballot could give the historical museum funds as part of the Museum Park project.
A line item in a preliminary list of projects in the bond issue includes $175 million for "Museum of Science/Historical Museum of Southern Florida."
The Museum Park plan was launched in 2000 when leaders of the science museum and the Miami Art Museum signed a joint resolution to move to the 29-acre Bicentennial Park. Miami voters approved a bond in 2001 that reserved $3.5 million for each of the museums provided they raise $10.5 million each in matching donations.
The historical museum has 10,000 square feet of permanent space and 3,000 square feet of temporary space at 101 W. Flagler St. at Metro-Dade Cultural Center Plaza, also home to the art museum. A 10,000-square-foot warehouse holds much of the historical museum's collection, Mr. McCammon said.
Before moving into its current building, the historical museum was a partner with the science museum on 3 acres at Vizcaya Museum & Gardens at 3280 S. Miami Ave.
The historical museum could get 15,000 square feet of permanent space and 10,000 square feet of flexible space plus offices at Museum Park, he said.
City commissioners in May hired Cooper Robertson & Partners to serve as economic, landscape and infrastructure consultants for the design of the museum complex.
A collaboration of the historical and science museums would not change the footprint of the Bicentennial Park proposal, Mr. McCammon said.
That's key, said Miami City Commissioner Johnny Winton, whose district inclues the park. "Green space is crucially important."
Commissioner Winton said the partnership plan is an "intriguing possibility."
"On the surface, I like the concept a lot," he said Tuesday, because it combines resources, "which is something this community hasn't done a very good job of over the years."
| Miami Herald, Posted on Sat, Aug. 16, 2003 | |
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The Miami Museum of Science, which needs $200 million to realize its plan for a new high-tech bayfront home in Bicentennial Park, plans to appeal directly to Miami-Dade County voters. In doing so, however, museum officials have taken planners and public officials by surprise and some controversy. The museum has proposed raising the $200 million through a county bond issue that would go to a countywide referendum March 9. But in going ahead with the plan, the science museum has struck out on its own without the Miami Art Museum, the second linchpin in a Miami city plan to revitalize derelict Bicentennial Park. The two institutions had been working in tandem for three years on a plan to erect new homes in a Museum Park at Bicentennial. Science museum administrators and board members did not inform art museum officials and gave little advance public notice of their proposal, which they presented recently to the county commission's budget and finance committee. The committee approved the plan -- commissioners had little choice in the matter for technical reasons -- but not without first scolding science museum representatives for going it solo. Some commissioners are worried the science museum initiative would not only leave the art museum in the lurch, but also compete with, and potentially undermine, county plans for a broader $1 billion bond issue proposal now being developed. That bond would be voted on sometime next year. ''I think it's unfortunate,'' said Miami-Dade Commissioner Katy Sorenson, co-chair of the finance committee, in an interview Friday. ``They have a right to put it on the ballot. But a better strategy would be for them to put on a package with MAM and be part of the larger bond issue.'' ``Politically, you can only go to the voters so many times.'' The full commission will consider the referendum request Sept. 9. Because it meets technical requirements, it is likely to pass. The science museum would then have 60 days to gather enough petitions from registered voters -- about 37,000 signatures -- to qualify for the ballot. Typically, such bonds are paid off through property-tax revenue. Science museum officials defended their approach, saying it was time to tell voters how they plan to finance the new facility. The new museum would vastly expand its exhibits and allow it to venture into high-tech areas its current facility can't accommodate, they say. That, in turn, would as much as triple annual attendance from about 300,000 now, helping draw visitors to downtown Miami and helping in its revival. They say they were encouraged by a recent survey they commissioned that they said showed voters would overwhelmingly approve a bond issue for the popular institution, now housed in a cramped and antiquated historic building across from Vizcaya. ''People see it as something which is very much a part of the community,'' said science museum director Gillian Thomas. ``We're trying to kick-start the process and make something happen.'' The $200 million would pay for construction of a 250,000-square-foot building and installation of exhibits, including a new planetarium and a proposed new aquarium. Sorenson, finance committee chair Jimmy Morales and other public officials are pressing science museum and MAM officials to come up with a joint proposal before the Sept. 9 meeting. Representatives of both institutions say they have have met, but would not disclose the substance of any discussions. ''It may be we can move forward at the same time,'' the science museum's Thomas said in an interview Friday. The art museum, whose director has previously described its relationship with the science museum as ''joined at the hip,'' has yet to say how it would pay for its building, which would cost about $65 million. MAM director Suzanne Delehanty was circumspect Friday, acknowledging only that the science museum plan was ``a little bit of a surprise.'' But she said the timing for a new bond issue was favorable because the 30-year-old Decade of Progress Bond, which financed millions of dollars in county public projects, will be paid off next year. New bonds would not require an increase in tax bills for county residents. | |
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