Posts filed under 'Emerging Neighborhoods'
Image: Midtown Four and Midblock
The Foremost Symbol of Miami’s Emerging Urbanism
Midtown Miami is, in many ways, the most obvious symbol of Miami’s rapid urban transformation. It exhibits Miami’s architectural star power, represents the most ambitious push west for urbanism in the city thus far, sits on a formerly blighted and infrastructureless area of the city, and incorporates large-scale commercial and residential elements. For all intensive purposes, it is a city-within-a-city.
Image: The shops at Midtown Miami’s northwest side
The Skeptics Viewpoint
Yet, despite this, there are those that recall the past failure of the much hyped Omni Mall when considering Midtown’s prospects for success. However natural this historic allusion may seem, the Omni, which never had the residential component Midtown has, is currently owned by a New York-based firm with billion dollar plans that span 10-15 years. Suffice to say times have changed. Then there are those that claim the project is…
Continue Reading September 25, 2007
Image 1: An under utilized retail structure with blue awnings on NE 24th street and Biscayne Boulevard is shown in the foreground with new developments surrounding it.
Continued from Signs of Urban Life: Development Outlook (Uptown’s Woes)
Uptown is the largest of the three primary urban core segments (CBD and Brickell Village being the other two). It contains four unique sub-segments:
- Media and Entertainment District
- Edgewater
- Wynwood Arts District
- Midtown Miami & vicinity
Map: Uptown and its four subsegments are shown above. The Media and Entertainment District is shown in blue, the Midtown Miami vicinity is shown in yellow, Edgewater in green, and Wynwood in red.
Continue Reading September 12, 2007
Map of the area: N.E. 2nd Avenue is shown in green and Midtown Miami in blue
Economic Artery in the Making?
N.E. 2nd Avenue, which runs parallel to Biscayne Boulevard and the FEC Corridor in Uptown, has remained largely untouched by new development. This north-south thoroughfare is important because it links to the Performing Arts Center, Midtown Miami, the Design District, and is next to Edgewater and the Wynwood Arts District. Currently, the Avenue is mostly dotted with vacant lots and decrepit buildings for sale, which indicates a ripeness for transformation, but change, although small, is already turning N.E. 2nd Ave into something of an economic artery. Let’s take a quick gander:
Continue Reading August 21, 2007
Image: The Marquis (left) and ten Museum Park (right)
This installment was supposed to be about Brickell Village, but I shuffled the order a bit and decided to start my retail potential focus at the center of the Core.
Parkwest has many problems. Let’s address them in no particular order:
Image: Greyhound Station with the Marquis tower looming in the background
Continue Reading August 8, 2007
Image: A scenic N.W. 1st Avenue with the Miami Arena to the right
Visionary Mode
It never fails. Every time I am in the vicinity of N.W. 1st Avenue and the old Miami Arena, visionary mode kicks in. Visionary mode, by the way, is when an area’s potential is blindingly bright, despite its existing blighted state. This little section of the CBD is located, more or less, where Overtown meets Parkwest.
Here are 10 11 reasons why I like it:
Continue Reading July 5, 2007
Map: The S.W. 3rd Avenue Corridor is shown in dark blue. The Roads is shown in red surrounding the Corridor, Brickell Village is shown in light blue, and the Simpson Park Triangle in green.
Orientation
The S.W. 3rd Avenue Corridor is south west of Brickell Village and surrounded by the residential neighborhood known commonly as “The Roads”. The tree-lined Corridor begins at the junction where Coral Way turns from S.W. 22nd street into S.W. 3rd Avenue and ends at the I-95 overpass. Low density residential surrounds the Corridor on all sides. The area, although narrow and not very long, has some interesting newly built and planned mid-rise developments. Set amid a diverse mix of palatable international restaurants, the S.W. 3rd Avenue Corridor is an exciting prospect.
Continue Reading June 4, 2007
Map: Simpson Park Triangle
Orientation
There is an interesting pocket of development activity in the Brickell Village area. It is contained within S.W. 15th Road, the I-95, and S.W. 1st Avenue. East of the I-95, south of Brickell Village, and west of the Roads, the neighborhood forms a triangle slightly smaller than Brickell Key. The Metro-Rail runs adjacent to it.
Continue Reading May 21, 2007
Previous Posts
