Location: Florida, USA.

Architect: Foster + Partners.

The Norton was built in 1941 as an elegant series of Art Deco-inspired single-storey pavilions around a central courtyard. The new masterplan restores the logic of the original plan, reasserting the clarity of the main circulation, balancing the different building heights, introducing new exhibition galleries and education spaces, and providing 12,000 square feet of new gallery space. A new street frontage and entrance on South Dixie Highway to the west redefine the museum’s relationship with the city. The new entrance plaza is an iconic Banyan tree that was planted when the museum was first built. The extension’s new shimmering roof curves around the tree canopy, uniting the entire ensemble while sheltering the entrance plaza.

Three double-height pavilions mediate the low-rise galleries and the existing three-story Nessel Wing, unifying the whole composition with a shared palette of white, horizontally-banded stucco. The garden is an integral part of the master plan, incorporating native trees and flowers to provide shaded walkways and an intimate setting for visitors to enjoy the artwork. Claes Oldenburg’s iconic Typewriter Eraser, Scale X (1999) sculpture is a focus.