The Herald reports that ground was finally broken on the Miami Circle Park this past Friday. The 2.2 acre state park is located at the mouth of the Miami River and was purchased by the State of Florida for $27 million dollars ten years ago. We welcome a usable new green space to downtown Miami, since so very little of it exists in the city. The Miami Circle Park is a perfect opportunity to create an active park that draws in residents, office workers and students to educate them on the 2000 year old history of Miami. The park should be safe, visible, accessible and inviting.
According to the Herald:
The $750,000 first phase of construction calls for a paved promenade around the 2.2-acre site, a drop-off circle for school buses and cars, modest landscaping and lighting and a few interpretive signs. The second phase, which would extend the promenade into a figure eight with the circle at the middle, would include a curved wall display featuring a timeline of events and a limestone geologic display. Small huts for events and educational activities for children will also be added.”
Although some of these design elements are appropriate, we must consider who the park’s principle visitors will be. Will it in fact be used predominantly by school children whom visit on field trips or tourists on vacation? Or will it be those who reside and work in the immediate area? My guess is the latter group will be using the park with more frequency. Ideally, it would be designed to accommodate all of these user groups and a fee would not be charged to encourage use of the park.
Since the vast majority of those utilizing the park will come by foot or bicycle, the parking, the drop-off circle for school buses and cars, and paved promenade around the site should be limited. The curved wall display with the timeline is a nice touch and certainly makes the park interactive and educational. With the high density and its central location, a dog park and/or playground should be considered. Picnic tables with suitable shading from native trees and vegetation should be added for those who work in the area as an incentive to use the park during their lunch break and on the weekends. Since this is a piece of our history, the landscaping should replicate the park’s natural state. By diversifying the amenities of the park, different users will utilize the park for their own reasons throughout the day.
Furthermore, in a perfect world, the First Presbyterian Church which lies just south of the Icon, would donate the right-of-way to the city of Miami. Through this generous donation, the existing boardwalk which already connects the Miami Circle Park to Brickell Park could then extend further south, through church property, to the existing boardwalk which connects to the Brickell Key Bridge.
The first phase of the park is slated to be completed in the spring of 2010. Hopefully the design which has been proposed is not final. As the design of the park stands right now, about ¼ of the park’s area will be used to accommodate motor vehicles. We should not allow the Miami Circle Park to become another contribution to auto-centric Miami. Funds for phase 2 have yet to be secured, but Commissioner Sarnoff has indicated that the state will have to come up with the funding since it is a Florida State Park.
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