Construction fences and test walls now ring the Vero Beach Museum of Art’s Riverside Park home, signaling the start of a long-planned transformation. Crews are testing materials and gearing up to lift a new building above the river, an overhaul that will add galleries, classrooms and public terraces while aiming to keep the museum’s collection safely out of harm’s way during floods. It is the most sweeping change the museum has seen since it opened about four decades ago.
According to a March 13 campaign update, the Museum in the Garden capital drive has pulled in $110 million toward a $126 million goal. Per Vero Beach Museum of Art, nearly 50 new donors have joined since the public groundbreaking in November 2025, and many naming opportunities have already been snapped up.
Design and size
The expansion is designed by Allied Works with landscape partner Unknown Studio. Allied Works describes a 90,000-square-foot building set within terraced courtyards and walled garden volumes that are lifted above the park grade. Architectural Record reports that the plan adds about 68,000 square feet of new construction, including roughly 22,000 square feet of galleries, a distinction that separates net new space from the total building area.
Flood resilience and the riverfront
City planning records show the project must meet design flood elevations, and the overall scheme raises the site so that galleries and collections sit above the floodplain. As outlined in minutes from the city’s review process, designers intend to build a new plateau roughly nine feet above sea level to lift public spaces above a likely storm surge, per the City of Vero Beach.
On-site tests and materials
Contractors have begun building material mock-ups on the Riverside Park footprint to finalize color, texture, and performance for the cast concrete exterior. One local report notes that crews mixed oyster and Florida beach shells into concrete for a test wall, work Turner Construction will use to evaluate 12-inch-thick wall panels, according to TCPalm.
Local donors pushing the campaign
Major hometown philanthropy is helping close the gap. The Indian River Community Foundation has committed a $2 million grant that will name the ceramics center, and the broader campaign counts dozens of large gifts. Local coverage calls the foundation’s contribution a catalytic push toward finishing the museum’s $126 million goal, per Vero News.
What visitors will find
Plans call for the main galleries to move to the second floor, while the entire first floor will be free to enter and open to the public. That ground level is slated to include an education wing, ceramics studios, a Kids Art Zone, a café, and a flexible auditorium. Terraces will stitch the building back into Riverside Park and frame public gathering areas. Those features appear in the museum’s design release and renderings, per Vero Beach Museum of Art.
Timeline and what to expect
The public phase of the project officially broke ground in November 2025. VBMA expects to stay open for most of the construction, but it is planning a several-month closure in 2027, when crews will demolish parts of the old building and complete the new connection between old and new spaces. Demolition timing, on-site testing and projected completion windows from late 2027 into 2028, depending on phasing and retained uses, are outlined in city planning documents, per the City of Vero Beach.
For now, visitors can still find plenty happening inside. The Holmes Gallery is hosting James Prosek: At Work through Oct. 25, and the museum continues to program exhibitions and classes even as construction reshapes its Riverside Park campus.
