Brickell CitiCentre
On Friday I attended the University of Miami Real Estate Impact Conference that was held at 1450 Brickell Avenue. The conference was well attended with approximately 225 real estate, architecture and legal professionals and graduate students.
The first panel discussion was titled Global Urban Design & Miami 2020 and Guy Bradley, CEO Mainland China, Swire Properties and Bernardo Fort-Brescia, Founding Principal, Arquitectonica spoke at length about Swire’s Brickell CitiCenter project.
The $1 billion project is scheduled to break ground this year and will deliver 4.6 million square feet to Brickell. The 9.1-acre mixed-use development has been assembled with four parcels of land. Two of the largest parcels are nudged between SW 8th and 7th Streets. Pedestrian bridges and walkways will connect the four parcels of the development and the project will have two levels of underground parking. At the heart of the project will be much needed retail, but will also include restaurants, a hotel, office suites, and apartments or condominiums.
CitiCenter will have pedestrian croswalks to keep customers off the dangerous FDOT roads.
This project will be transformative for Brickell to say the least. No longer will Brickell and Downtown residents travel to Merrick Park, Dadeland or Aventura Mall to shop. Brickell CitiCentre will directly compete with these malls and I foresee a decline in the vehicles miles traveled by those that live in the area. Many of these upper middle class customers and employees of CitiCenter will most likely arrive by public transit, foot or bicycle. I expect to see a noticeable uptick of pedestrian activity once the project is completed.
During the conference Mr. Fort-Brescia mentioned accessibility for those arriving by modes other than a car. The project is a few blocks from the Brickell Metrorail station and the 8th Street Metromover Station will be redesigned and incorporated into the CitiCenter project.
Unfortunately, this project is wedged between two FDOT roads-SW 8th and 7th Streets. During the conference I asked Mr. Fort-Brescia if there was any discussion with FDOT to make these roads more pedestrian and business-friendly by adding parallel parking and changing the configuration of these streets from one-way to two-way. To my surprise they had considered it, but the FDOT rejected the idea because of to access to I-95.
Source: Miami Herald
Where there is a will there is a way. Unfortunately, there is no will at FDOT to make improvements to state roads that would benefit the local community. The FDOT’s interests lie in moving cars as quickly (not efficiently) as possible in and out of our urban core at a cost to those of us that live and work in the central business district. That being said, Mr. Fort-Brescia cited several one-way streets in New York City that are successful. For now I’m willing to compromise with the one-way streets as long as they are designed to be pedestrian and business-friendly; as they are currently configured, SW 7th and 8th Streets are not.
Urban highway or urban street? There is nothing business or pedestrian-friendly about SW 7th and 8th Streets.
Both streets, with three lanes of traffic flowing in opposite directions, have a design speed of 40-45 mph. The design speed of these roads should not exceed 30 mph. This can be accomplished easily and inexpensively by narrowing the travel lanes, adding on-street parallel parking and a bike lane. In doing so, it would calm traffic and add a protective barrier between the moving cars and the pedestrians on the sidewalks. In addition, the on-street parking would give ground floor CitiCentre retail customers’ accessible parking. By reducing the design speed of these roads, cyclist would also feel comfortable riding to CitiCentre and pedestrians would feel at ease walking and crossing the street to get to and from this mixed-use project. The pedestrian bridges that connect the four CitiCentre parcels would not be necessary if we actually had streets that were safe for people to cross. You would think that a $1 billion private investment would actually get some buy in from FDOT, but perhaps it is just wishful thinking on my part. FDOT continues to be accountable to no one but themselves and they fail to see how important a role they play in economic development of the local economy by designing complete streets.
The design speed of SW 7th and 8th Streets should not exceed 30mph.
If the current design of SW 7th and 8th Street remains it will hurt more than help CitiCentre succeed. FDOT certainly is not listening to the concerns of the Brickell community at large. Transit Miami, South Florida Bike Coalition, Green Mobility Network, Brickell Homeowners Association, and the Brickell Area Association together lobbied to make Brickell Avenue more pedestrian-friendly during the recent (and ongoing) resurfacing project. Although some concessions were made by FDOT they did not go far enough. Hopefully Swire can convince the FDOT to do the right thing and somehow persuade them to design a more pedestrian and business-friendly street. As it stands right now SW 8th and 7th Streets are an embarrassment for our community and a danger to any pedestrian trying to cross from one part of CitiCentre to the other.