If a hurricane were to hit St. Petersburg, one of Florida's most valuable cultural treasures -- the Salvador Dalí Museum, showcase of the largest collection of the surrealist artist's work outside Spain -- would most likely be destroyed by rising waters and boating debris strewn by winds from the marina across the street.

Housed in an old marine warehouse since the museum opened in 1982, the 2,140-piece collection -- which includes 96 oils on canvas -- must be removed and secured in another location every time a storm threatens.

''The concern about the safety of this priceless collection was the driving force to build a new museum,'' says director Charles Henri ''Hank'' Hine, who was in Miami recently under the auspices of the Consul General of Spain to drum up support for the $35 million project. ``But the old museum was simply too small to display both Dalí's art and other exhibitions.''

A FORCE OF NATURE

Under construction since December, the new museum is designed to withstand the 165-mph winds of a Category 5 hurricane, Hine says. Although it also has a waterfront location overlooking Tampa Bay, the new building includes a windowless, 18-inch-thick, steel-reinforced concrete third floor, where most of the collection will be housed.

The museum is scheduled to be completed in December 2010 -- in time for a ''1/11/11'' grand opening to match the quirky theme of Dalí's work and life, iconic mustache included.

The building may be storm safe, but it's far from dull.

''The museum will be a work reflective of Dalí's unique juxtaposition of classical and fantastic elements,'' Hine says.

It was designed by architect Yann Weymouth of Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum (HOK) in the same celebratory spirit of the masterful Dalí, who imagined the now-famous melting clock and was obsessed with mathematical equations and science. Weymouth also designed the elegant new Frost Art Museum at Florida International University's Tamiami campus and worked alongside I.M. Pei in Paris on the Louvre expansion and renovation.

`THE GLASS ENIGMA'

A flowing dome -- thick, powerful laminated glass in a triangulated steel framework, a computerized design based on the Buckminster Fuller geodesic sphere -- rises 75 feet above a plaza and appears to hug the concrete structure. Weymouth developed his design ideas after learning that Fuller and Dalí knew each other.

''We call it the glass enigma,'' Weymouth says. ``It's very high tech. Not one pane of glass is the same or of the exact geometry as the others.''

Another tall, plump glass structure flows from a ''treasure box'' which will house some Dalí works that require viewing in natural light.

''We call that one the igloo,'' Weymouth says, adding that the glass part of the design is supposed to withstand Category 3 hurricane winds.

A spiral staircase resembling a strand of DNA greets visitors. A giant boulder brought from Spain appears to support a corner of the building. A hopscotch of mathematical equations is planned for the garden.

The museum will double in size to 66,450 square feet, allowing the oil paintings to be displayed year round and an expansion of exhibitions by contemporary avant-garde artists who follow in Dalí's spirit by exploring new frontiers. A 90-seat theater, a 150-seat community room, an extensive museum store and a café with indoor and outdoor seating are housed on the first floor. The second floor features administrative offices and a research library open to the public by appointment.

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