The Miami Art Museum (MAM) Broke Ground in Bicentennial Park

Andres Viglucci wrote in the Miami Herald that the Miami Art Museum held a ceremonial ground-breaking on their $200,000,000 Herzog & DeMeuron structure on Tuesday. The actual dirt movement will be on or around December 15th. Viglucci says:

If it happens as scheduled, that initial phase would mark a consequential milestone in plans to transform the barely used park into a cultural centerpiece for downtown Miami -- a strategy that has been dogged by some degree of controversy and doubts over its feasibility.

The Urban Environment League has been divided on the use of Bicentennial Park to house museums. As the article states:

But the plan has come under criticism from parks activists who say the buildings would eat up too much open space, while some prominent art-world figures question whether MAM, with a relatively small collection of contemporary art and a low profile, merits a $200 million, taxpayer-financed building. Others have questioned whether the art and science museums can meet ambitious private fundraising goals for construction and subsequent operation of the large, complex new buildings, especially amid the economic collapse of the past couple of years.

Miami Museum of Art Funding in Jeopardy

Miami New Times: Terrance Riley says he resigned when he realized the building on the bay would take longer than he had originally anticipated.

"Under ideal circumstances I would have stayed and seen the project through, but from any objective perspective, it's more complex politically than virtually any other project I'm aware of."

What made the circumstances "not ideal"? Here's part of what the story finds out: For starters, there's the money. The county manager reported two weeks ago that only $30 million have been raised for the construction of the new building, not $45 million like the museum had said before. Half of that is in pledges that may not materialize.

In other cities, trustees might have come to Riley's aid. But, some trustees were dubious of his reputation from the beginning.

Nine trustees left the MAM board in two years.