How many cities have giant icons of their names, spelled out in huge, towering letters? The one that pops instantly to mind is the Hollywood Sign, above the neighborhood of Hollywood in Los Angeles, which is close enough, and, well, that's it really. Now, Jacksonville, up in the northeastern corner of Florida, is getting a giant name tag too.
A few days after the Big Bubble covered the sale of Brickell Flatiron Park, from the developers of the Brickell Flatiron tower behind it to a new, and as yet undisclosed, contingent of investors, the Miami Herald posted their coverage of the sale. In that Herald article, the Big Bubble's concern that the park could be fully developed over, turning what is one of Brickell's few green spaces into a retail development, seems like it may be answered.
Flatiron Park, a narrow triangle of land in the center of Brickell that I actively followed and promoted as a park back in the good old days when I was the editor of Curbed Miami, has been sold. For the past five or so years, part of the triangle-shaped piece of land was the site of the sales center for Brickell Flatiron, a condo tower which has recently been completely sold out, with the rest being used as a green space with a landscape design by Raymond Jungles.
Park(ing) Day, the annual event when urban activists around the world turn parking spaces into public parklets, is almost upon us. This year, Park(ing) Day is on September 21. In previous years, Park(ing) Day has been pretty successful in South Florida, but last year, Park(ing) Day happened to land immediately in the wake of Hurricane Irma. So, it will be interesting to see how many urban parklets are created this year.
The removal of a former service yard (along with, sadly, the felling of a few majestic trees by Hurricane Irma) has expanded Flamingo Park in the heart of South Beach by quite a lot. Check out all this new green space! Now they just need to landscape it. What do you think about this new swath of green space in South Beach?
The privately owned public park at first street and Collins Avenue in South Beach continues to be locked and closed to the public almost a year after an article appeared on the Big Bubble questioning why it was closed. I don't think it officially has a name, but I call it One Ocean Park.
A few days ago I slid on downtown to check out Miami's newest public park, Omni Park, a creation of Miami's maestro of temporary public spaces, Brad Knoefler. Knoefler is well known for creating Grand Central Park, a pop-up urban park which was located where part of Miami Worldcenter is being built.
