The Annabelle Selldorf-designed Rubell Museum opens in emerging Miami art district
New York-based Selldorf Architects converts a series of former industrial buildings in Miami’s Allapattah neighbourhood into a museum-worthy setting for a family’s art collection, making more of it accessible to the public than ever before

When Mera and Don Rubell began collecting in 1964, they diligently assigned a budget of $25 (a quarter of Mera’s teaching salary) each week to art. Five decades on, the genial couple have amassed an enviable collection of 7,200 works by more than one thousand artists – and counting. Together with their son Jason, the family recently opened the doors to their collection’s new home in Miami’s emerging Allapattah neighbourhood, enlisting Selldorf Architects to reimagine a disused rice storage complex as the newly minted Rubell Museum (previously known as the Rubell Family Collection).
The New York-based architecture firm gutted and transformed six warehouse units into a cohesive 100,000 sq ft campus – tripling the exhibition capacity of the collection’s previous space, a two-storey former Drug Enforcement Agency building less than a mile away in the city’s Wynwood district. The Rubell Museum now unfolds across a single level, comprising 40 galleries, a flexible events and performance space, a richly stocked research library, a bookstore, an outdoor bar and new restaurant LEKU, serving Basque cuisine.
Above, view of courtyard garden. Below, art in the galleries.
Inside the museum, Annabelle Selldorf – the go-to architect for blue-chip galleries including David Zwirner and Hauser & Wirth – has largely hewed to the building’s industrial origins. The structure’s factory bones are palpable in the expansive ceilings and concrete columns, tempered by a museum-quality finish of white walls and refinished concrete floors. Hurricane-safe windows have been strategically placed in the warehouse structure to allow Miami’s abundant daylight to filter into the space, while an internal street branches off into the galleries to the west, and leads to administrative spaces to the east.
Selldorf addressed the needs of the collection with scaling galleries, to accommodate monumental works from Sterling Ruby, Keith Haring, Kehinde Wiley and more, through to installations, such as Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Rooms, and more modestly sized pieces. At the heart of the site – where the loading dock was once located – is a leafy courtyard garden designed by La Casona Garden in collaboration with Juan Roselione-Valadez. The garden was conceived as a ‘restoration project’ using rare plants native to the Everglades and the Florida Keys.
The Rubells were instrumental in luring Art Basel to Miami Beach 18 years ago, so it’s only fitting that the influential collectors timed the opening of their new museum on 4 December during Miami Art Week. They’re in good company too: fellow Miami art power player, the philanthropist and magnate Jorge M Pérez, similarly opened his own private museum, El Espacio 23, several blocks directly west, in Allapattah. As development hots up in this swiftly changing area, we’ll be on neighbourhood watch.
The internal courtyard.
Exterior view of the Rubell Museum.
The entrance to the Rubell Museum.
Covered walkways surrounding the garden lead visitors first to the reception desk and a restaurant.
From left, Stake: Art is Food for Thought and Food Costs Money, 1985, by John Baldessari; Untitled, 1982, Keith Haring; Llano Estacado, Dallas, Texas, 1979, by Carl Andre; and Branded Head, 2003, by Hank Willis Thomas.
Pharos, 1985, and Brest, 1985, by Philip Taaffe; Slanted Playpen, 1987, by Robert Gober; Untitled, 2007, by Christopher Wool; Untitled (Sink), 1984, by Robert Gober; Heritage, 1986, by Nancy Shaver; Untitled (Golden Knots:5), 1987, by Sherrie Levine; “Untitled” (Join), 1990, by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, in conjunction with Michael Jenkins.
Das Neue, 2003, by Neo Rauch; Schauspieler, 2013, by Isa Genzken; Demos, 2004, and Vorfuehrung, 2006, by Neo Rauch.
America, 2008, by Glenn Ligon; Sleep, 2008, by Kehinde Wiley; Untitled, 1982, by Keith Haring; Llano Estacado, Dallas, Texas, 1979, by Carl Andre.
The building maintains the overall vocabulary of the original structures while updating them sensitively to serve their new public purpose.
INFORMATION
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
'Brutalist Berlin' is an essential new guide for architectural tourists heading to the city
Blue Crow Media’s 'Brutalist Berlin' unveils fifty of the German capital’s most significant concrete structures and places them in their historical context
-
Brazilian design has a new home in London
Tomorrow (October 16 2025), JIG Studio lands in London. The design collective will serve as a gallery, retail destination and cultural platform for Brazilian creatives
-
Like a modernist iceberg, this Krakow house has a perfectly chiselled façade
A Krakow house by Polish architecture studio UCEES unites brutalist materialities with modernist form
-
What to see at Switzerland’s art museums this autumn and winter
World-class art, design and photography await at 11 Swiss museums. Take a video tour to peek inside, then plan your trip with our guide to the best exhibitions to see now and into 2026
-
Why are we so obsessed with ghosts? From the psychological to the gothic, a new exhibition finds out
Ghosts have terrified us for centuries. ‘Ghosts: Visualizing the Supernatural’ at Kunstmuseum Basel asks what is going on
-
12 things not to miss at Art Basel 2025
Art Basel is bigger and better than ever. Avoid overwhelm, follow our definite what-to-see guide at this year's event (19-22 June)
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been up to this week
This week saw the Wallpaper* team jet-setting to Jordan and New York; those of us left in London had to make do with being transported via the power of music at rooftop bars, live sets and hologram performances
-
Meet the Art Basel Awards 2025 winners
The inaugural Art Basel Awards 2025 winners have been announced, celebrating a wide array of artistic practices shaping the future of art
-
The alternative art fairs championing emerging artists
The lower barrier to entry to these smaller and specialist art fairs make them hubs of grassroots creativity, allowing emerging names to establish a foothold in the industry
-
Don’t miss these five artists at Art Basel Hong Kong
Art Basel Hong Kong – the glittering intersection of European curatorial expertise and Asia's money-fuelled art swagger – returns for its 2025 edition
-
Miami’s new Museum of Sex is a beacon of open discourse
The Miami outpost of the cult New York destination opened last year, and continues its legacy of presenting and celebrating human sexuality