The Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science (formerly known as the Miami Science Museum or Miami Science Museum and Space Transit Planetarium) is a science museum, planetarium, and aquarium located in Miami, Florida, United States. The museum originally opened its Coconut Grove location across from Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in 1960. It relocated to Museum Park in the downtown area adjacent to the Perez Art Museum Miami in 2017 after the closing of the Coconut Grove location in 2015.
History
In 1950, the Junior League of Miami opened the Junior Museum of Miami. It was located inside a house on the corner of Biscayne Boulevard and NE 26th Street. Women of the Junior League started it with little seed money and lots of volunteer hours. The exhibits were made up of donated items, such as a hive of live honeybees which hung outside a window, and loaned materials, such as Seminole artifacts from the University of Florida.
In 1952, the museum relocated to a larger space in the Miami Women's Club building on North Bayshore Drive. At that time it was renamed Museum of Science and Natural History.
In 1953, the Guild of the Museum of Science was formed, adding volunteers to assist the staff, run the museum store, and conduct tours and outreach programs.
In 1960, Dade County built a new museum building on a site in an area of Miami called Coconut Grove, on property belonging to the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens complex.
In 1966, the Space Transit Planetarium was added with a Spitz Model B Space Transit Projector. One of only 12 of its type that were built, the projector was the last one still in operation when the museum closed in 2015. The Planetarium was the home of the national astronomy television show Star Gazers with Jack Horkheimer, produced by Miami's PBS member station WPBT.
In 2011, the museum launched and hosted the annual Miami Underwater Festival, in partnership with the French Festival Mondial de l’Image Sous-Marine (World Festival of Underwater Images). The festival was founded and sponsored by underwater photographer Marko Dimitrijevic and his wife, Shelly.
In 1989, the museum's lease agreement with Vizcaya was extended by 99 years, to 2088.
In 2015, the museum's Coconut Grove location closed in anticipation of the new museum's opening in 2017. The dismantled Spitz projector was moved to the HistoryMiami museum in downtown Miami and placed on permanent display.
Relocation
In March 2011, Miami native Phillip Frost and his wife, Patricia, donated $35 million for the construction of a new science museum in Downtown Miami. The museum was designed by the New York studio of global firm Grimshaw Architects; Miami's Rodriguez & Quiroga Architects Chartered played an executive role.
Completed at a cost of $305 million, the new Philip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science opened on May 8, 2017, in downtown Miami's Museum Park. Sitting on , the new LEED Gold-certified complex consists of four interconnected buildings with parking underneath:
The Frost Planetarium is a 250-seat full-dome screen with a diameter of and a 16-million-color, 8K projection system.
The three-story, cone-shaped, Aquarium is open to the top level and also includes a diameter oculus lens at the bottom for viewing the fish, rays and sharks.
The North and West Wings contain permanent and rotating exhibit galleries, Guest and Member Services, concessions and the gift shop, offices, and the Knight Learning Center with four classrooms.
As of June 15, 2023 the former site of the Miami Science Museum and Space Transit Planetarium has been demolished to make way for the Vizcaya Village project.
Exhibits
Aquarium
The museum features a multi-level aquarium featuring habitats commonly seen in South Florida and the surrounding areas. The top deck of the Aquarium features key South Florida ecosystems, including the 100-foot wide, 500,000-gallon Gulf Stream Aquarium, where creatures such as mahi-mahi, devil rays, hammerhead sharks and others can be found. The middle level features habitats such as: coral reefs, mangrove forests, and the Gulf Stream. Nearly 30 aquariums and interactive vessels are included to demonstrate the bio-diversity of sub tropical habitats. The bottom-most level exhibits the Gulf Stream Aquarium where drifters such as jellyfish ride the massive flow running along Florida's east coast and into the North Atlantic. The aquarium culminates on this floor with a 31-foot oculus lens forming the bottom of the Gulf Stream Aquarium.