Vizcaya Museum & Gardens Receives Landmark $20 Million Gift from Ken Griffin, Sets Stage for Vizcaya Village Revitalization
Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, located along Biscayne Bay in Coconut Grove, has received a landmark $20 million gift from philanthropist Ken Griffin, marking a transformative moment in the museum’s history and setting the stage for the revitalization of Vizcaya Village.
A Historic Gift and Bold Vision
On November 7 2025, Vizcaya revealed the gift, which marks a defining moment in its next chapter of restoration and renewal. The funds will support the ongoing revitalization of Vizcaya’s campus and the launch of a major fundraising campaign—a once-in-a-generation opportunity to preserve Miami’s cultural heritage and expand public access.
According to the press release: the gift will fund the creation of a new “Center for Learning and Discovery” within Vizcaya Village—housed in the historic barns and stables—featuring educational programming for students, families, and visitors, including hands-on art-making and urban agriculture experiences.
Opening Villa Serena to the Public — After 111 Years
Perhaps most notable: the plan to relocate and open to the public the historic home Villa Serena, built in 1913 for former U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan. Until now, Villa Serena has long been inaccessible to the public. Under the proposed plan, it would be moved a few blocks to the southern portion of Vizcaya Village, placed near its original site, and become a public asset for the first time in 111 years. The relocation and opening are subject to regulatory review from Miami-Dade County, the City of Miami and other historic-preservation authorities.
In addition to the capital gift, Griffin is contributing a $5 million endowment to support the long-term care, programming and public access of Villa Serena—without reliance on taxpayers.
Why This Matters for Miami’s Cultural & Community Future
As one of South Florida’s most-visited historic house museums—drawing nearly 400,000 visitors annually—Vizcaya is uniquely positioned to expand its role. The revitalization of Vizcaya Village, and opening of Villa Serena, will reshape how Miami locals and visitors interact with the city’s history, architecture, landscapes, and community programs.
Key components of the plans include:
Restoration and enhancement of historic buildings and landscapes within the Village, as part of a phased plan developed with preservation & landscape architecture firms.
Expanded educational and community programs, including urban-agriculture experiences (for example “The Field,” a new edible garden) and other public-facing initiatives.
Reimagining Vizcaya Village as a vibrant cultural destination, blending museum functions, community gathering spaces, education, and heritage interpretation.
As noted by Joel Hoffman, Executive Director & CEO of Vizcaya: “Ken Griffin’s extraordinary $20 million gift will accelerate our vision for Vizcaya Village as a center for education, history, and community engagement.”
What’s Next & How to Stay Engaged
With the gift secured and the master plan in motion, the next steps include securing regulatory approvals for the relocation of Villa Serena, advancing restoration work at Vizcaya Village, and launching the fundraising campaign. The project is built on strong collaboration between public investment, private philanthropy and community-driven vision.
Vizcaya
For members of the public, this means: more opportunities to engage with Miami’s cultural heritage; new ways to participate in educational programs; and the chance to experience historic estates in ways previously unavailable.
If you’re interested in supporting the campaign or planning a visit, you can explore more information on Vizcaya’s website.
In Summary
This development is more than a large donation: it signals a strategic shift for Vizcaya from historic estate to dynamic cultural campus. The combination of capital investment, public access expansion (via Villa Serena), and community programming sets a new standard for how historic institutions can engage 21st-century audiences.
If you’re in Miami (or planning to visit), keep an eye on the transformation of Vizcaya Village—this is a landmark moment for the city’s cultural landscape.
Vizcaya Metrorail Station Project Begins Reviewing 7 Construction Proposals
Miami-Dade County is currently reviewing 7 construction proposals for the mixed-use project at the Vizcaya Metrorail Station. This development on 2.62 acres is set to feature condominiums, retail shops, and restaurants.
According to the South Florida Business Journal, all proposals are limited to 10 stories as well as a majority of the project must be residential units with 12.5% to be workforce housing.
Miami-Dade requested proposals in December 2020. The deadline was at the beginning of March and the current 7 proposals include those from:
Related Group: Proposing two 25-story towers. The first tower would have 391 apartments and 2,500 square feet of retail space. The second tower would be 320,000 square feet of office space. A 7-story parking garage with 638 spaces would be included. This project is above the 10-story maximum height restrictions.
Rilea Group, Axis Realty Trust, Coastal Construction and McKinney Properties: This project would be called ‘Vizcaya Park’ with two 10-story buildings connecting by a bridge. Proposal includes 288 apartments, 19,040 square feet of retail, 135 public parking spaces in underground garage, and 223 parking spaces for residences.
Adler Group & 13th Floor: This proposal includes 327 apartments with one 9 and one 10-story buildings. Improvements include those to the Underline, Metrorail station and the pedestrian bridge. This would include 309 parking spaces, with 100 for the public.
Grass River Property and Coral Rock Development Group: This project will include 292 workforce or affordable housing units and 3,000 square feet of retail in two eight-story buildings. Project includes 310-space parking garage and a community center.
Housing Trust Group: This proposal includes 209 workforce housing units, 15,000 square feet of offices, 2,600 square feet of retail, and a 126,000-square-foot parking garage in eight stories.
Mill Creek Residential: This proposal includes 392 apartments in two 10-story buildings with 8,000 square feet of retail and 620 parking spaces.
Terra Development Group: One 5-story and one 10-story with a combined 327 workforce housing units, 8,530 square feet of commercial space. Also included are 463 parking spaces with 100 for public use.
The proposals were set to be reviewed on March 19, 2021 but as of right now, no determination has been made on which proposal won.
Vizcaya is Restoring its Grotto Swimming Pool by Pioneering Modern Artist Robert Winthrop Chanler
Vizcaya’s swimming pool, courtesy Vizcaya.
Although Vizcaya Museum & Gardens was designed from the start to look old, ancient even, the estate from the beginning was always a showcase for cutting edge art. Some of the most exquisite, and provocative artists of the 1910s and ’20s were commissioned by James Dearing and his artist director Paul Chalfin to create adornments for Vizcaya, including a number of artists that exhibited at the famed Armory Show, which introduced European modernist and experimental artistic styles to the American art scene in 1913. It was one of the most important moments in all of art history. Included in that group was Robert Winthrop Chanler, who created ten extraordinary screens for the Armory Show, and the grotto-like interiors and ceiling of Vizcaya’s swimming pool.
The pool interiors depict surreal underwater worlds and sea life. An already fragile environment from the beginning (it was created with water-based paints even though an artist as acclaimed and talented as Chanler was should really have known better than to use them to decorate a pool) the partially enclosed swimming pool has taken a hundred years of abuse and is undergoing a restoration to maintain its beauty, reports the Miami New Times. Although the hope is to revert the piece to how it originally looked when completed in 1916, just three years after the Armory Show, the museum’s restorationists will have to satisfy themselves with the limitations of the years. “Removing the overlay of paint that has been done through the years isn’t possible,” curator Gina Wouters explains to the New Times. “Right now, the urgency is to stabilize it. The structure itself is now safe, so now it is about keeping what we have here in one piece, like the clay structures.”
Next comes historical documentation with a pair of graduate students in the fall, figuring out how to protect it from hurricanes, and finally creating a trajectory that leads to the proper display of the interior, which right now can only be seen from a few vantage points. “The thing is,” Wouters says, “how you’re supposed to be experiencing it is within. That’s our next challenge. “Vizcaya is all about sensory experience,” she told the New Times. “It’s not just about coming here and looking at art. It’s about touching, tasting, smelling, seeing, and feeling — and at the same time, learning about Chanler and bringing awareness to this challenge of preservation too.”
After being closed to the public for significantly longer than a decade, Vizcaya Museum & Gardens has reopened its marine garden, the historic linkage between the formal gardens to the north and the more informal, lagoon gardens to the south which are now gone. The restoration of the marine garden has just begun, but giving renewed access to the public can only help efforts to bring it back to the way it was.
