The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts will break ground for its expansion this year. A firm date is expected to be announced shortly, museum officials say.

Meanwhile, the design for the E. Claiborne and Lora Robins Sculpture Garden that will be a part of the expansion has been further developed. The four-acre garden will essentially replace what is now the museum’s parking lot and will partially cover the roof of a new 600-car parking deck at the north end of the museum’s campus.

VMFA is working with Olin Partnership of Philadelphia as landscape architect for the garden. The company’s design “will transform the VMFA campus through grand horticultural plantings and shimmering water features that will accentuate the new architecture as well as provide a beautiful environment for sculpture,” says Dr Michael Brand, VMFA’s director.

The garden had been designed with three zones: the slope from ground level to the roof of the parking deck, a lawn garden between the main museum building and the Center For Education and Outreach building on the western perimeter of the grounds and a garden grove near Grove Avenue at the southern perimeter of the museum’s campus.

Plantings will comprise a mix of flowering and shade trees, including mature oaks near Grove Avenue, as well as evergreen hedges, perennials, wildflowers and herbs. Native Virginia flora will be the focus of an area at the top level of the slope to the parking deck.

The VMFA is at 200 North Boulevard. For information, www.vmfa.state.va.us or 804-204-2704.