Boom or Bust: Miami

A Closer Look: South Beach (West Avenue Corridor)

Orientation

Cyclists, crowded outdoor cafes, restaurants, people walking dogs, cabs, and plenty of pedestrian activity is what the West Ave. Corridor is all about. The neighborhood is a calm haven for local life in touristy South Beach. As mentioned in the introductory post, the MDPL does not designate the neighborhood as a historic district, but that doesn’t mean it lacks aesthetic gusto. There is no neighborhood association, that I could find, registered with the municipality, and on the neighborhoods map, the City of Miami Beach addresses it as West Avenue, but there is much more to it than that.

Images: Side walk cafes in the Corridor

The narrow neighborhood straddles the south west coast of the Billion Dollar Sandbar. It’s located between Biscayne Bay and Alton Road (on the east and west) with Dade Blvd. and 5th Street making up its north and south boundaries. It’s bordered by the quiet Flamingo Park District to the east, popular Lincoln Road to the north east, Sunset Harbor and Bayshore to the north, and SoFi to the south. From the bay line, the world famous Star, Palm, and Hibiscus Islands are a glance away.

Image: Site of Vitri (foreground) and Bentley on the Bay (background)

Residential Activity

Beginning in the south and moving north, the Corridor gets off to an exciting start:

Continue Reading 9 comments June 19, 2007

A Closer Look: South Beach (West Ave. Corridor) INTRO

South Beach is divided into 11 historic districts by the Miami Design and Preservations League. This delineation of what neighborhood is what based on architecture is ideal. However, since not all areas have historic significance, the MDPL designations fall short of covering all areas. BoB intends to cover all areas of activity, nodes, neighborhoods, districts, whatever you may call them,based upon historic character, development activity, etc. My recent article on the Flamingo Park District led me to cover a neighboring community, but frankly, I don’t know what to call it. The neighborhood is bordered by Alton Rd (East), West Avenue (West), 5th street (South), and Dade Blvd. (North).

Since I couldn’t rely on MDPL’s map for guidance, I turned to the City of Miami Beach’s neighborhoods map, but there again, I couldn’t get a satisfactory answer. The area is referred to as “West Avenue”. The problem with that is that we’re talking about a neighborhood not an Avenue. Or are we? So in a last attempt to garner a neighborhood title, I reviewed the names of the various subject buildings in the area. Often times, a developer will name a building after the neighborhood, or his/her interpretation of what the neighborhood should be called. In doing so, I found no consistency. Here are some examples:

Continue Reading 7 comments June 14, 2007

A Closer Look: South Beach (Flamingo Park District South)

Map: The area outlined in red is the Flamingo Park District South, which is the focus of this piece.

Orientation

This weekend I had a discussion with Josh Stein– a well known realtor specializing in high end South Beach lofts– and he mentioned that the area from 5th street to 11th in between Alton Road and Euclid Avenue was the frontier of South Beach. I thought “frontier of South Beach” sounds kind of paradoxical, but after giving the area a closer look, I’ve come to realize that Josh’s assessment is on the money.

Map: Flamingo Park District in its entirety is shown in Pink

The area in question is designated as the Flamingo Park Historic District by the Miami Design Preservation League. Josh mentioned the southern part of this district. I will, therefore, focus on the southern half of the Flamingo Park District from 5th street to 11th street (south to north) and from Alton to Pennsylvania Ave (west to east).

Images: Foliage in the District

First off, it goes without saying that the Flamingo Park District is surrounded by a hubbub of activity on almost every side. The raucous Washington Avenue runs along the east side of the District. The busy Alton Road runs along the west side. The bourgeoning SoFi area sizzles to the south. Interestingly, the area has no major residential or commercial development anchors, but that will soon change with the shops at 5th and Alton, which is currently planned but not yet seeing any construction activity. The anchor will hold down the area’s south west corner. Other developments that are sure to influence the district are Vitri, also to the south west, and the Mondrian to the north west.

Continue Reading 10 comments June 11, 2007

A Closer Look: Uptown (Midtown Miami)

Getting Started
Midtown Miami is the type of project that forever alters the urban landscape and character of a city. It is hard to put it up against all others. Although all new projects contribute their presence, Midtown Miami is a city within a city. Granted, it will take time for it to be fully built, and there are those that are skeptical it will ever get completely built. However, this project is much too large and already set in motion. Although it can slowdown, it will not stop. Even more important than Midtown Miami’s huge contribution to the urban mix is understanding what stood there before and how it categorically denied any real urban progress in Uptown. Prior to this emerging dazzling array of modern structures was a 56 acre railroad storage yard stacked high with columns of rusted railroad containers. The entire 56 acre area had no infrastructure. It was like a cancerous hole in the city. The storage yard deterred any interest in the entire area, helped diminish Tibor Hollo’s ambitious plans in Omni/Venetia, and hindered the Design District’s allure. To make matters worse, it was centrally located east of the I-95 in the heart of what is now Uptown. In the early nineties, it would have been nearly impossible to fathom that a massive brand new multi-phase mini-city could be built there. Today, because of Midtown Miami, the entire area stands to be catapulted into the new 21st century urban Miami. Yet Midtown Miami itself is not nearly as important as its expected deep effect on the entire area surrounding it. First, one must understand the significant scope and nature of this historic project. Subsequently, its inevitable effects on the urban periphery will become evident.

Continue Reading 10 comments February 12, 2007

A Closer Look: CBD (Jewelry District)

1 comment December 3, 2006

A Closer Look: Uptown (North Edgewater NE 25th - 36th st)

This article is a continuation of a south to north evaluation of Edgewater beginning at 25th street. N.E. 25th Street begins with a vacant lot in the south entrance of the street and Latin America Café in the northern front lot. As one continues down this street the Mondrian occupies a good portion of the south side. It is important to note that 25th street has quite a few parcels for sale—more so than most other streets in Edgewater. More of what the street will appear like in the near future begins to emerge as you head towards the bay. There are two new unique loft projects—Baylofts, which is one of the two, is fully occupied and has quite a bit of activity. At the rear bay front portion of the street, Onyx and Star Lofts are both under construction. Onyx is all but topped off and Star Lofts is coming along quite nicely. The fact this street has two major bay front developments along the bay as well as relatively new loft projects along the rear interior, in addition to a significant amount of parcels for sale, indicates that N.E. 25th street is primed for rapid growth. It already is one of the more established streets in the area.

Continue Reading Add comment November 18, 2006

A Closer Look: Parkwest (interior)

I had to make a correction because in looking at the DDA’s maps, the area of this analysis is listed as Parkwest. The area that is referred to as the Media and Entertainment District is actually the area around the PAC, which is considered by many to be the PAC district. Regardless, it is important to adhere to government development designations, so I will. Parkwest is an interesting idea to entertain. I say idea because the area hasn’t exactly fully materialized. It is in the center of the city, situated directly next to over a billion dollars worth of new development, has seen a significant amount of recent land acquisitions, and is located right next to public transportation.

Continue Reading Add comment November 13, 2006

A Closer Look: Uptown (South Edgewater NE 17th - 24th st)

The Edgewater section of Uptown is within these geographic boundaries: west of Biscayne Bay, east of Biscayne Blvd, south of the Julia Tuttle Causeway, and north of N.E. 17th terrace. The area comprises about twenty three blocks north of N.E. 17th street and is, on average, about 5 blocks wide. This narrow urban neighborhood has a significant amount of development activity taking place in and around it. It seems that Edgewater will have an array of mid-rises around 15 to 20 floors high along Biscayne Blvd and will have much taller high-rises along the bay.

Continue Reading Add comment November 6, 2006

What is BOB Miami?

I’m Miami BOB. I believe that Miami’s continuing development boom is phenomenal and is going to lead to it becoming a world class metropolis. I am native to the city and have been watching it’s growth with eager eyes since I can remember. This current boom is unlike any other in Miami’s history, and American Urban history will defintely take notice of it. If this current boom busts and most of the buildings get stalled or are never built, then it will be a devastating real estate crash that would go down as one of the largest on record. But, if the growth continues near the current level of activity, either residential or commercial, then Miami as we know it, will become a city that will impress the whole world with the massive scale of its new urbanity.

Continue Reading Add comment October 21, 2006