VERO BEACH, FLA.- The Vero Beach Museum of Art (VBMA) today unveiled design plans for its new expanded home and transformed campus in Riverside Park, along the Indian River Lagoon on Florida’s Treasure Coast. Developed by the architecture and design firm Allied Works in collaboration with Unknown Studio Landscape Architecture & Urban Design, the VBMA’s new two-story, 90,000-square-foot building comprises a series of walled gardens, terraces, and courtyards for art viewing and making, interweaving art and nature and blurring the line between the Museum and the park. With more than double the exhibition space, a dedicated education wing with purpose-built studios, and a flexible auditorium and community room, the project advances VBMA’s mission to serve as a dynamic and welcoming arts center for the Vero Beach community and for visitors from throughout the region and country.

Since opening in 1986 as an arts education center, VBMA has evolved into a cultural magnet for art viewing and art making. Today, VBMA ranks among the highest-attended small museums in the country, with a growing permanent collection of American Modernism and global Contemporary art, a robust exhibition program of original and major touring shows, and an art school with expansive arts education offerings, ranging from ceramics to photography to drawing and painting.


View of the entry terrace to the new Education Wing, one of many access points that welcome and accommodate VBMA’s full range of visitors. Image courtesy Allied Works © KVANT-1.

Marking the most comprehensive upgrade in the Museum’s 40-year history, the project ensures the long-term sustainability and resiliency of VBMA, extends the Museum’s programmatic capabilities, and creates a new signature public space for community gathering, learning, and exchange. The new, expanded building will also enable VBMA to accommodate the Museum’s growing visitorship and better serve its in-demand community-focused programs and educational initiatives for people of all ages and abilities, deepening its impact in the region and beyond.

“Our new building marks an exciting new chapter for the institution, reflecting and amplifying our role as the Treasure Coast’s preeminent cultural convenor,” said Brady Roberts, the Executive Director and CEO of the Vero Beach Museum of Art. “The transformed VBMA will be thoughtfully integrated into the surrounding park—a welcoming gesture that invites all to explore, engage, and become inspired by art. Our first floor will offer exhibitions, education, and public programs free and open to the public. The design’s forward-thinking approach to resiliency, infrastructure, and our evolving institutional needs ensures that the Museum will continue to be a vital, accessible destination for generations to come.”


The building’s lobby serves as a gateway to the first floor, which has been reenvisioned as a “cultural commons,” featuring exhibition, education, and program spaces that are free and open to the public. Image courtesy Allied Works © D-RENDER.

Allied Works and Unknown Studio were selected to design the new museum in 2022. Construction of the $85 million new building will begin in fall 2025. Museum programming will continue in the VBMA’s current facility through early 2027.

The New Vero Beach Museum of Art

Visitors will approach the new VBMA from the 115-acre Riverside Park, nestled within Vero Beach’s unique barrier island setting. The design leverages the beauty and temperate climate of the Museum’s site, featuring lush, terraced landscaping that elevates the building within the park, ensuring institutional sustainability and resiliency.


The building comprises a series of open courtyards interwoven with galleries, as seen in this view of the new Modern & Contemporary Gallery. Image courtesy Allied Works.

Conceived as a composition of interconnected rectangular volumes into which galleries, program spaces, and exterior courtyards are integrated, the building balances the visitor experience of art and landscape. Large open apertures connect indoors and out, framing native trees and plantings in the courtyards; bespoke metal screens add an element of intimate scale and ornamentality; and the building’s concrete façade, cast from a mix including native materials, reflects the hues and tones of the region’s natural environment.

In every aspect, the new building and campus celebrate and enhance VBMA’s tradition of collaborative partnership and engagement with the community. The design welcomes and accommodates the VBMA’s full range of visitors, with multiple entrances, including the primary entry court, the education wing, and the events terrace. The first floor, entirely free and open to all, features a café, interactive kids’ Art Zone, a flexible auditorium and community room, the Modern and Contemporary gallery, and the education wing with a variety of learning spaces and studios for painting, ceramics, and more. The Museum’s main exhibition spaces, including its collection galleries, sculpture gallery, and special exhibition galleries, will be located on the second floor. Interior overlooks provide visual connections to the lobby and community spaces on the ground level, and expansive windows offer views back to the park.


The Education Gallery features abundant daylight and visual access across the building and out to the surrounding landscape, connecting the art-viewing and learning experiences with the outdoors. Image courtesy Allied Works © D-RENDER.


The two-story structure will largely replace the Museum’s existing outdated one-story facility, part of which will be retained for art storage, shipping, and receiving. With 22,000 square feet of exhibition space, the new design will facilitate the Museum’s growing curatorial vision and allow the public to view works from the collection simultaneously with special exhibition programming. It will also decrease the Museum’s overall built footprint, while adding one and a half acres of green space to the park and creating a more fluid connection to the public sphere.

“The design for the VBMA’s new campus manifests the materiality of the region and creates an open and immersive setting where art, landscape, and architecture are seamlessly entwined,” said Brad Cloepfil, Founding Principal of Allied Works. “More than just a museum, the new VBMA becomes a profound statement of place—an open invitation to all.”


View of a second-floor gallery space looking out to Riverside Park. The second floor includes the Museum’s main exhibition spaces, including its collection galleries, sculpture gallery, and special exhibition galleries. Image courtesy Allied Works © D-RENDER.

Allied Works

Allied Works is an architecture and design practice that joins artists, builders, and thinkers in a collective pursuit of new expression. Founded in 1994 by Brad Cloepfil with studios in New York City and Portland, Oregon, the practice has completed prominent cultural projects, museums, educational facilities, residences, and workplaces in locations across the globe. In each project, Allied Works seeks to craft enduring and timeless designs, responsive to both purpose and place.

Notable works include the National Veterans Memorial and Museum in Columbus, Ohio; the National Music Centre in Calgary, Alberta; the Wieden + Kennedy World Headquarters in Portland, Oregon; and the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado. Current projects in design include the new United States Embassy in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; the Middlebury College Museum of Art; a new tasting and production facility for Beaux Frères winery; the newly opened Clemente Bar at Eleven Madison Park; and the renovation of the Todd Haimes Theatre, the flagship Broadway venue for the Roundabout Theatre Company, in New York City.


Site plan showing the building’s composition of interconnected rectangular volumes into which galleries, program spaces, and exterior courtyards are integrated. Image courtesy Unknown Studio Landscape Architecture & Urban Design.

Unknown Studio Landscape Architecture & Urban Design

Unknown Studio is a landscape architecture and urban design practice with a deep belief in the power of the designed landscape to bring joy, wonder, beauty, and improved quality of life to all. Through the craft of design and engaged collaboration, Unknown Studio creates new places and microclimates, tells stories, unearths memories, and amplifies the culture and ecosystems of the places in which we live. The studio seeks to explore the meaning and impact of the American landscape.

Unknown Studio has worked on significant cultural projects in Florida, including the Naples Botanical Gardens and the Miami Beach Soundscape.


Early conceptual sketch by Allied Works Founding Principal Brad Cloepfil. Image courtesy Allied Works.

The Vero Beach Museum of Art

Situated on a barrier island on Florida’s eastern shore, the Vero Beach Museum of Art (VBMA) offers an unparalleled setting for audiences to engage with the visual arts through original

exhibitions, expansive educational offerings, and dynamic public programming. Founded in 1986 as an arts education center, VBMA has grown its mission and reach over the decades to become a premier cultural destination on the Treasure Coast and one of the most visited art institutions of its scale in the nation. Its upcoming renovation and expansion, designed by Allied Works with Unknown Studio, builds on nearly 40 years of fostering connection, creativity, and cultural enrichment through the visual arts.

The Vero Beach Museum of Art is located at 3001 Riverside Park Drive in Vero Beach, Florida. For hours, directions, and admission fees, visit vbmuseum.org.