When American Bakeries Company opened a production facility in Miami in 1926, the sweet smell of baking bread wafted throughout Wynwood Norte. In 1978, when the factory closed, the art deco bakery was shuttered and gentrification loomed.
A coalition of artists and civic allies stepped up in 1986 to save the factory. These artists formed the Bakehouse Art Complex, a nonprofit, that calls itself the “creative spirit of Miami.” Bakehouse Art Complex turns 40 years old in 2026.
To celebrate its fortieth anniversary, the arts nonprofit will open an exhibition this fall, Bakehouse at Forty: Past, Present, Future—a program to honor the artists, advocates, private and public funders, and community members who shape the institution.
As its title suggests, there are three primary components of the Bakehouse Art Complex’s program: The exhibition will focus on the institution’s rich past, present, and future. Three participants—an artist, a curator, and an architect—were commissioned to take up this task. Their contributions will be presented in the form of archival materials, interviews, models, and drawings.
Past is curated by Philip Lique, Present by Krys Ortega, and Future by Michael Maltzan and Michael Maltzan Architecture. Maltzan’s installation will foreground the ongoing design work the Los Angeles office has been doing with the Miami nonprofit.
Maltzan’s installation will coalesce near the ones by Lique and Ortega, and include a conceptual site plan, model, and schematic drawings of the future campus. Philip Lique will offer a non-linear portrait of Bakehouse, charting its start as a bakery to its use now as hub for artists. Krys Ortega’s piece (Present) will speak to how Bakehouse fits within Miami’s existing arts ecosystem today.
Previously, Michael Maltzan Architecture was retained to envision new affordable housing at Bakehouse Art Complex, as well as state-of-the-art studios, fabrication spaces, and public indoor and outdoor offerings. In total, Maltzan’s plan will add 286 units of mixed-income housing accompanied by an on-site daycare, grocery store, and parking.
The design by Michael Maltzan Architecture calls for an 8-story tower that anchors Bakehouse’s northwest corner. This will allow for ample amounts of the ground level to be left open to pedestrians. A series of curved forms define the studios and maker spaces.
A central garden will link the new residential building to the existing Bakehouse Art Complex. An elevator tower envisioned by Maltzan aesthetically hints at the site’s existing, historic grain silo. A serrated facade will tie in visually to Bakehouse’s industrial history.
The goal driving Maltzan’s campus plan is to establish a new paradigm for “arts-integrated living,” Bakehouse said. This concept will take center stage in the forthcoming event, Bakehouse at Forty.
For Cathy Leff, Bakehouse Art Complex executive director, the exhibition this fall is about showing how the institution’s “100-year legacy continues to shape Miami’s social, cultural, and economic landscape.”
Bakehouse at Forty: Past, Present, Future will open November 7, 2025.
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