The Florida Holocaust Museum
Behar Peteranecz won the design competition to reinterpret the entrance of the Florida Holocaust Museum, delivering a heightened security posture without diminishing the building's civic presence. The intervention is an iconic, sculptural volume that complements the original architecture while establishing high visibility from Central Avenue, with a new signage base anchoring the elevation along 1st Avenue.
Inside, the project introduces Thor — a Danish rescue boat — as the centerpiece of the main exhibit. The vessel was brought into the building through the original entrance and set in place beneath a new glass floor, aligned to the hull with millimeter precision using a 3D scan. Visitors look directly down onto Thor as they move through the gallery above.
A single geometric discipline ties the work together: the 72-degree angle of the existing broken-shape triangle is carried through every detail of the new design — every cut, fold, and seam — so that the addition reads not as an attachment but as an extension of the original architectural idea. General contracting was provided by Hennessy Construction Services, with structural engineering by George F. Young and MEP by Osborn Engineering.
