Congratulations to the City of Miami Beach for installing new speed humps on Prairie Avenue. They look great and for the most part were installed correctly. They even took the bicycle lane into consideration when installing them! Speed humps are excellent traffic calming devices. I’m dreaming of speed humps in Miami.
Posts under ‘Urban Design’
Pic o’ the Day: Functional Streets
There are certain critical factors which create a functional street. This street, exemplifies what the urban center of a small town should resemble. Let’s get interactive and discuss some of the qualities which make this such a functional urban space.
Also, Can anyone name the town?
Urban Spotlight: Montreal Pt. Deux
Walking around in the Stade Olympique neighborhood of Montreal’s outskirts, I saw the perfect opportunity to illustrate how seamlessly medium density buildings can be integrated with classic single family homes (sans the hideous car ports). This picture above shows a row of multi-family buildings abutting one story and short two-story houses that are not unlike [...]
Miami 21: Is it really that hard to understand?
I know we have already mentioned this topic this week, but considering the Herald continues its negative spin campaign against the zoning rewrite I thought a healthy counterpoint was in order. Herald columnist Ana Mendez writes in her column today that she thinks that the code is a little too complicated for a layperson to [...]
The Biscayne Wall Blunder
Speaking of curb cuts, I was passing along NE 2nd Avenue and was completely disgusted to experience firsthand the atrocities permitted to occur on the backside of the buildings facing Biscayne Bay. The term Biscayne wall is quite fitting as the backsides of these towers were clearly designed to resemble the blank slate of [...]
Pic o’ the Day: Curb Cuts
Curb cuts are perhaps one of the most under recognized destroyers of good urban design. They completely mutilate the continuity of the pedestrian realm and endanger cyclists riding close to the curb or cars parked on the street. Curb cuts effectively subsidize parking and therefore increases driving demand. The next time you are taking a [...]
Lesson for Housing Reformers: You Can’t Escape Crime with Suburban Design
Source: Miami Herald
An article in the Herald this morning sheds light on crime problems in Liberty City’s recently constructed Habitat for Humanity community.
On Northwest 68th Terrace, a street in the heart of the neighborhood with 17 houses, nine homeowners reported having something stolen from their property or had property vandalized in the last month.
The list [...]
Stop Sign of Death?
I live next to a busy intersection in South Beach – Meridian Avenue and 13th Street. It’s the main entryway to Flamingo Park as well as the beach’s central avenue. It’s the only tree-shaded roadway around. Suffice to say, there’s a lot of traffic: cars, bikes and pedestrians.
Within the past few months, four-way stop signs [...]
Thursday Quote: Life on Havana’s Streets; a model for American Cities
Today’s quote comes from a phenomenal short video put together by our friends over at Street Films and the Project for Public Spaces on the vibrancy and quality of life of the streets of Havana. Although we agree Havana is not the ideal city to emulate, we could learn a lot from the beautiful [...]
Fort Coconut Grove
If you’ve ever traveled through the Grove (emphasis on Center Grove for this piece), you’ve probably noticed the ubiquitous gates and walls that fortress off most homes and buildings in the neighborhood. Perhaps many of these residents believe that gates and walls provide a feeling of safety and sense of security to protect them from [...]
Pic o’ the Day — Revealed
Nick, Charck, and Alex got it — it’s Church Street in Burlington, VT. Everyone was able to narrow it down to New England, however.
I love Church St because it embodies so many quality urban elements. The street is completely closed off to cars for several blocks, allowing people to comfortably utilize the public space in [...]
Miami Streetcar vs. Monorail: A Brief Comparison
As our friend Verticus from MVB discussed in our recent post on the Miami streetcar, a monorail system would prove to be a slightly more efficient transit system than a streetcar- if you were comparing the modes strictly on that level. Looking at it strictly as a Transportation engineer, as Verticus has suggested, I [...]
Transitography 42: Boston’s Back Bay
One of the best examples of how to create a vibrant, pedestrian accessible, and dense neighborhood is in Boston along the Back Bay. The dense row houses, some of which have been converted into mixed use structures (along Newbury street, Commonwealth Avenue, and Boylston) create a dense yet comfortable living environment. Public park [...]
Urban Design Malpractice: Marina Blue
Marina Blue, the “swanky,” 60 story residential skyscraper rising along Biscayne Boulevard across the future site of Museum Park has issues, major issues. The 600+ foot tower, designed by world renowned Arquitectonica is just one of the latest blunders to rise in our city. Now please don’t be confused, but we’re not [...]
Hollywood Revival
The Hollywood- Young Circle Arts Park has been impressively executed. The centrally located new park is a strong indicator of Hollywood’s very serious commitment to creating a livable exciting environment for its residents.
Many of the right notes were hit in this redesign of a delinquent public space. Water features as well as [...]
