Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science

The museum grew out of the Junior Museum of Miami, which the Junior League of Miami housed in a Biscayne Boulevard house in 1950. In 1960 it moved onto three acres of the historic Vizcaya estate in Coconut Grove, as the Miami Museum of Science, and stayed for fifty-five years.

In November 2004 Miami-Dade County voters passed a bond to fund a new museum. To shape the programme, the team at the old site put on an interactive exhibition asking what the public wanted from a science museum: a sunlit outdoor space about South Florida's ecosystems, a planetarium, and exhibitions on space and on human health. Those wishes, along with the idea of growing the marine-science programmes into an aquarium, went into the briefs sent to architectural firms. In 2007, after a worldwide search, a selection committee with delegates from both Miami-Dade County and the city picked Grimshaw Architects. In 2009 the City of Miami agreed to a lease giving the museum four acres in Museum Park.

Phillip and Patricia Frost pledged $35 million in 2011 to put their name on the museum, and later gave a further $10 million toward the planetarium, now the Frost Planetarium. Construction started in February 2012. Grimshaw was design architect, with Vincent Chang, one of its partners, leading the project; Rodriguez and Quiroga Architects Chartered was executive architect, ArquitectonicaGEO landscape architect, Skanska USA ran construction management and Hill International project management. The Coconut Grove site closed to the public in August 2015, and the new museum opened in May 2017.

The complex has four buildings on four acres (about 1.6 ha) of Maurice A. Ferré Park, with 250,000 square feet (about 23,200 m²) of floor area. Grimshaw set them out in an open-armed stance facing the park's lawns, the breezes off Biscayne Bay and the downtown towers. In the firm's words, the varied programme resembles a campus of several linked buildings more than a single structure; an open-air atrium runs between them.

The North and West Wings, two bar-shaped buildings, make up the arms. Their pixel-like facade pattern, stepping in and out, plays with the light and lets the sun's daily arc bring the buildings to life. The Aquarium, organic in form, nestles between the wings: from above it traces a droplet, and from the side its lines recall a ship's bow. The Planetarium, a sphere, faces it. A soft white unites the campus, with touches of blue marking the buildings: sea turquoise for the Aquarium, the deep blue of space for the Planetarium, pale blue for the wings, after the ocean breezes.

Inside the Aquarium the route is vertical: visitors first meet aquatic ecosystems in the open air at ground level, then go down below the waterline into a more intimate interior. The dominant element is the Gulf Stream tank, a cone of 500,000 gallons (about 1.9 million litres) across three levels and 100 feet (about 30 m) wide. With no corners, it lets open-ocean fish such as tuna and sharks swim without a break. It was cast in concrete with no construction joints, in a single 25-hour pour, and is wrapped inside by 9.5 miles (about 15 km) of post-tensioning cable. It stands on six concrete columns above the Baptist Health South Florida Gallery, whose ceiling is the tank's base. That base is an acrylic lens 31 feet (about 9.4 m) across and 13.5 inches (about 34 cm) thick, made near Rome, shipped to Miami by barge and lowered into the tank by crane; it is tilted at 21 degrees.

The Frost Planetarium is 67 feet (about 20 m) across, its dome built from 32 precast sections called orange peels, each weighing 50,000 pounds (about 23 t).

The museum was designed for hurricane country: its first level sits 21 feet 8 inches (about 6.6 m) above sea level, more than 50% above the requirement. It earned LEED Gold certification in April 2019; among its features are white and green roofs, naturally ventilated and lit outdoor galleries, and a rooftop solar farm.

The Aquarium is explored on three levels. The Vista, at the surface, holds the Gulf Stream tank, coral reefs, mangroves and the Everglades, with a pool where visitors can touch a stingray. The Dive has underwater views and interactive stations about Florida's coral reef. The Deep ends beneath the oculus, where the sharks seen from above swim overhead.

The Planetarium seats 250 and shows 8K imagery with surround sound under a dome tilted forward by 23.5 degrees, so the picture fills the whole field of view. The North and West Wings host exhibitions ranging from evolution to ecology and space travel.

The museum is open every day of the year from 10 am; closing time varies from day to day. Buying a ticket in advance is recommended.

It stands at 1101 Biscayne Boulevard, next to the Metromover's Museum Park station.