The revitalization of this underutilized public park transforms it into a neighborhood and regional destination through the integration of diversified urban park programs, regional gardens and restored native habitats, and the connection with urban circulation systems. By unifying its three edges – urban, cruise ship passage and beach – it becomes a center that, through the resolution of overlapping cultural, programmatic and environmental requirements, will contribute to the open space life in Miami for decades to come
South Pointe Park creates an animated and ecologically sensitive community park in lively and flamboyant South Beach. The park is a redesign of an existing 19 acre park along Government Cut, an artificial inlet to Biscayne Bay at the Atlantic Ocean coast. The now 22 acre park positions two corresponding circulation paths – the Serpentine Walk and the Cut Walk – across its length to provide critical regional connections and views out to Government Cut and the Atlantic Ocean. The paths connect to both the Baywalk that traverses the Biscayne Bay coast, and the Beach Walk which provides access along the Atlantic Ocean. The 1800 foot long linear Cutwalk, a waterfront promenade along Government Cut, acts as a datum, rising between 12-18” above the grade of the park across its length. The height of the path gives it the heft of a sculptural object and sets it apart from the surface of the park. Constructed from Dominican Keystone, a stone of fossilized coral, the materiality suggests the natural processes of the adjacent sea. From the park, the path is perceived both as object and line, while the experience on the path heightens the sense of spectatorship. This pathway encourages the theater of the promenade, and provides the ideal viewing platform for the massive cruise ships entering and leaving Biscayne Bay.
In counterpoint to the strong linear move of the Cutwalk, a serpentine landform with leisurely twists and turns begins at the Atlantic Ocean Beach Walk, rises up to allow dramatic views out to the Atlantic Ocean, and access to the top of the pavilion structure and continues west until it meets the Bay Walk. The landform encourages spirited movement along it, and the heightened experience of an ever-changing visual field of movement is enlivened and enthralling. The twisting of the landform is echoed as a motif throughout the park in smaller garden areas. Sinuous bands of native dune plantings on the ocean side of the serpentine landform are contrasted with abstracted dune landforms and palm trees on the inside slope of the serpentine. A smaller garden area of coastal hammock plantings of native ground covers, palms and deciduous trees echo the twisting path of the landform. A bosque of palms with understory grasses and ferns creates a buffer to the urban context along the northern edge of the park. The design integrates the park into the urban fabric by extending two major streets – Washington Avenue and Ocean Drive – into the park with generous hardscape entry plazas.
Location: Miami Beach, Florida, USA
Local Landscape Architect: Savino Miller Design Studio
Architect: William Lane Architects
Photographs: Courtesy of Hargreaves Associates
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