Malba picks Frida Escobedo for underground expansion in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires's best-known modern art museum is going underground.
The Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Malba) in Buenos Aires has chosen Mexican architect Frida Escobedo to design its expansion, which will double its exhibition space by building beneath the adjacent Plaza Perú, The Art Newspaper.
The plan keeps the park on top. The museum says the project will not shrink Plaza Perú or limit public access to it, with new galleries, entrances and gardens woven around and under the open space.
Inside, the scheme adds galleries for temporary exhibitions, an auditorium, multipurpose rooms, workshops and storage areas. Outside, it includes a sculpture garden, a landscaped courtyard of about 600 sq. m and an open garden leading to a staircase on Salguero Street.
It is still early days. The design is in its first stages, construction is expected to begin in 2027, and opening is pencilled in for late 2029 or early 2030.
Malba said it asked three firms to test ideas for the site before picking Escobedo. She founded her studio in Mexico City in 2006 and opened a New York office in 2022.
She is a busy pick. Escobedo is designing the new wing for Modern and contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and she is working with Moreau Kusunoki on the renovation of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In 2018, she became the youngest architect to design the Serpentine Pavilion in London, the summer pavilion commission in Kensington Gardens.
Money is part of the story too. Malba founder and president Eduardo Costantini has launched a US$50 million trust, a fund set aside to pay for care of the collection and the building into the future, to help secure the museum's long term. The gift was reported by La Nación on 17 September 2026, La Nación.
What makes this stand out for visitors is the squeeze. Malba sits on a tight, much-loved block. By digging down rather than building up, it gains room for big visiting shows and events without losing the plaza locals use every day.
