The 2005 hurricane season had severe impact on Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, beginning with Hurricane Katrina on August 25 and culminating with the devastation of Hurricane Wilma to the gardens, grounds, and collections on October 24.  Dozens of historic statues, garden features and architectural elements were damaged, while scores of trees and the plantings of the Maze Garden were completely destroyed.

Since then, we have made remarkable progress in our recovery efforts. We have selected a few exemplary “before and after” images to document our restoration progress to date.

Many of our post-hurricane restoration efforts are drawing to a close, and while this provides encouraging evidence that recovery is possible, it will still take quite some time to refurbish and reopen Vizcaya’s Café and Shop in the ground-level spaces originally used as James Deering’s billiard and smoking rooms. We are grateful for the support we have received for our recovery efforts from FEMA, the State of Florida, Miami-Dade County, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the private donors whose contributions provided moral as well as financial support.

The 17th century statue of Neptune along the entrance road was cut at the waist during Hurricane Wilma by the impact of a gumbo limbo tree; the right image shows Neptune restored and cleaned.
Along the East Statuary Walk several columns and urns were toppled and damaged as a result of flying debris (top); they have been restored and cleaned since then (bottom).
Many parts of the Stone Barge were damaged during Hurricane Wilma, including one of the sculptures by A. Stirling Calder, shown on the right after restoration.
Funded in part by an emergency assistance grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

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