County Considering Network of ‘Water Buses’ Around Biscayne Bay

Photo via Flickr/Phillip Pessar.

In their wacky-tobackie dysfunctional ways, South Florida’s politicians are getting serious about looking for answers to our worsening traffic issues in Miami. The latest ideas being floated (floated!) are aquatic, per yesterday’s county commission meeting, when commissioners got a preview of their probe into possible water transportation solutions. As Miami Today reports, it’s an idea that people have yacked about for years, but finally the county is getting serious, with various types of water taxis, and even ‘water buses’ being considered. They are pouring over old water transport studies for ideas, and looking for possible locations for docks and connectivity to other transit, as well as ideal sized vessels, and whether the solution would be a city or county-run service.

County Commission Officially Approves Mixed-Use Megaproject at Douglas Road Metrorail Station

On Tuesday Miami-Dade County Commissioners officially signed off on Adler Group and 13th Floor Investments’ mixed use, 7-acre megaproject The Link at Douglas at the Douglas Road Metrorail Station. The two developers beat out the Related Group in a competition awarding them a 30-year ground lease, with two 30-year options to extend it, to develop the transit-oriented site. Renderings show two big-ol towers, pedestrian-oriented street facades, and smaller scaled accessory buildings.  The project will have 970 residences, a 150 room hotel, and 70,000 square feet of retail space. The Real Deal has more details on the deal. Bonus: $600k for the Underline.

Inside Brickell City Centre’s First Completed Condo Tower, Reach

Brickell City Centre Reach was recently completed and opened to residents, and today Miami Condo Investments got a lookie-loo inside. The building, the first of two condo towers in Phase I of Brickell City Centre, is done up to the nines, with everything super-perfect and tchochkies on every surface. Meanwhile, almost all units have sold in Reach, while there is much more availability in the not-yet-completed Rise, and prices for both are averaging about $650 per square foot. Check out the photo tour below.

SkyRise Miami Could Get ‘Giant Observation Wheel’ and ‘Giant Chair Drop’ Additions

Marcel Duchamp, Bicycle Wheel, 1913.

When and if SkyRise Miami eventually gets built, the observation tower and vertical amusement park above Biscayne Bay in Downtown Miami might have two new additions: a ‘giant observation wheel’ and ‘giant chair drop’ according to modified plans submitted to the City of Miami Planning Department for approval. The Next Miami acquired a copy of those plans and renderings, unrealistically showing sort of a pill-shaped oval of little pods discretely orbiting around the back of the tower. Ridiculous rendering alert! It could actually be pretty awesome, but come on bro, the engineering alone will make the ‘wheel’ a lot more noticeable than that ridiculous little fantasy chain of pearls. The finished product will probably look more like a bicycle wheel nailed to a stool (how Duchampian!) than that rendering. Hey, at least it won’t be so phallic anymore.

Is There a Way to Save Midtown’s Central Green Space?

Photo by Sean McCaughan.

The great big empty lawn in the center of Midtown Miami has sat there for years as Midtown gradually gets built up around it. Originally meant to be the location of an entertainment center and mall when Midtown was first developed from the old Buena Vista Rail Yards, the huge lawn has for years been literally nothing but a luscious green carpet of grass, with the potential to make a fantastic public space, parkland, gardens, Central Park, etc. for the entire neighborhood. Back in 2012, I wondered what was up, and the answer was nothing. The assumption today in 2016 is that it still will be developed, by its owners or whoever they sell it to, someday. But is there an alternative? I posed the question to some friends on Facebook and one, urban planner Donald Shockey, offered an intriguing potential solution:

The City could aggressively offer the owners expanded transferable development rights to make this a permanent park and still profit from their investment. This is very feasible and would provide a desperately needed central park to serve Midtown, Wynwood, and Edgewater. This would be an enormously transformative project for Miami.

Adorable South-of-Fifth Condo Does a Lot With 588 Square Feet

“Manhattan meets Miami” is how the broker describes this gorgeous little condo in a postwar (built 1969, summer of love) condo building South-of-Fifth. Okay, yes, it’s kind of Manhattan-ish in its petite size and the fact it’s not covered in palm tree prints, but it’s also just very tastefully done, and resourcefully done too. The NE facing unit at 360 Meridian Avenue, with expansive views just over the tree line, is listed for $330,000. In 588 square feet, this apartment is very nicely kitted out, with a separate sleeping area partitioned by concrete block, a kitchen hidden behind an extensive bookcase, a large dining room table, and a couch near the balcony.

Coconut Grove’s Ace Theater Placed on National Register of Historic Places

Photo via Google Street View.

The Ace Theater in the West Grove, which was built in the 1930s and one of the few movie theaters to cater to Miami’s black community in the intervening decades of segregation (Real Deal says it was the “only” one in the ’50s, which doesn’t sound quite right. For one thing, the Olympia had a black section.) has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places following a campaign by its owners, longtime Coconut Grove residents The Wallace Family. Following the designation, the Wallaces plan to preserve and restore the theater as a multi-use entertainment venue, taking advantage of tax credits and transferable development rights to make the project more appealing to investors. Although a similar project championed by many Grove-ites, the restoration of the Coconut Grove Playhouse, has been dormant for years, frustrating some people who see the similarities between the two, the restoration of the Ace could be absolutely fantastic for the West Grove, Miami’s oldest black neighborhood, and for the preservation of Miami’s black heritage as a whole.

Big New Mixed-Use Project Coming to Old Channel 10 Studios Site on Biscayne Boulevard, Replacing Art School

Quadro

A 13-story building called Quadro with 198 rental apartment units and 28,000 square feet of retail space is being developed by Alta Development in the Miami Design District at 3900 Biscayne Boulevard, the former site of the Channel 10 Studios, and the current location the Miami  Arts Charter School which is relocating to Wynwood.  Naturally, it’s called Quadro because the building stretches from 39th to 40th Streets, although 40th Street doesn’t actually intersect with Biscayne Boulevard here (the next intersection isn’t until 50th Terrace), so that’s something…

From renderings revealed on The Next Miami, the design itself looks attractive and logical, if not particularly unique in any way. It does, however, urbanize what until now has been a rather atypical suburban stretch of Biscayne Boulevard, and it does it well. Alta partnered with the Related Group on the neighboring Baltus House, so they’re not unfamiliar with the area. Alta hired Revuelta as the design architect and Behar Font as the architect of record, although they bought the land from Nancy Karp, wife of architect Kobi Karp, a year ago for $18.4 million. Whatever anyone says about those Karps and the quality of their architecture (and I’ve said a lot), you’ve got to admit they’re pretty damn talented real estate investors.

Why Are So Many New Wynwood Buildings So Big & So Blah?

Wynwood 25

The Wynwood Design Review Committee unanimously approved designs for three buildings taller than 80 feet on Wednesday despite the committee’s own reservations that the buildings were stupendously blah and would be eyesores in such a colorful neighborhood. Some of their comments, as relayed by Real Deal, were quite juicy: “No one is going to want to take a selfie in front of that” committee member Zak Stern of Zak the Baker said of Wynwood 222, the project which got the most criticism. And “It’s just standing there, massive, big, and there nothing to look at,” said committee member Victor Sanchez. of the building’s gray design. Nevertheless they approved it with requirements that basically amounted to “add a little color.” The other two buildings were Wynwood 25 and Wynwood 26, also approved.

Wynwood 222 was designed by Raymond Fort, of Arquitectonica. He defended his project by saying his intent was to “tone it back” and present an “inverted version” of Wynwood. If you splash the building with bright graffiti colors you are going to end up with something that’s not desirable.” The thing is, being the son of Arquitectonica’s two principals and an heir apparent to the firm, if anybody has Miami architecture in his blood it’s him. If anybody ‘gets it’ it should be him. So, either Ray is totally off his rocker and the throne is going into dangerous hands or he is making a point with his big gray box that the rest of us just don’t realize. Consider another building he designed  for the firm that really does push the envelope for architecture in Miami in an exciting direction, and is also gray: the Fairholme Capital Building on Biscayne Boulevard.

In the end though, these larger buildings are a new thing for Wynwood, to to a recent rezoning that made them possible. As Stern told Fort, it wasn’t anything personal against the project (although come on, this is one of the most colorful neighborhoods in the world and that shtick is gray), it’s just “you are our guinea pig.”