Kids in Miami, Florida
Children ages 18 and under make up around 18% of the population of Miami. This is a large percentage
that is not always thought about during the design phase of many projects. Designing for children is an important part in a city’s cohesion. Child friendly design improves a city’s level of safety, as well helps with the child’s ability to learn and grow. Mara Mintzer is the program director for an organization called Growing Up Boulder. This initiative began in 2009 as a collaboration between the University of Colorado Boulder, the city of Boulder, and the school district. The organization uses kids in the design development phase as a different approach for solving problems. This allows children to grow and realize that their opinion matters too. But what is happening in Miami that keeps children in mind during the design process?
The Underline
The Underline is massive project currently taking place in Miami that takes the land
below Miami’s MetroRail, and turns it into a 10 mile linear park. This park connects different parts of the city and acts as a safe, fun corridor for exploring Miami. Stretching from the Miami River to Dadeland South Station, the park has many different features as well as different planting communities to reflect the multiple historic plant communities of the area surrounding the city.
The different character zones planned for The Underline include active recreation, green tech, art & craft incubator, and nature and play. All four of these character zones were designed with children in mind.
The active recreation zone is located in the widest area of the corridor and will accommodate open areas where children can pass a soccer ball or throw a frisbee back and forth. The green tech zone will have green infrastructure implemented such as green roofs and rain gardens and will use these features to teach children about the benefits of sustainability. The art & craft incubator zone will display public art that will have some sort of interactive side of them. Finally, the Nature and play zone is located in the highly developed section of The Underline, closest to downtown Miami. This zone will focus on a park-like, nature-based setting that also incorporates play spaces and room for activities such as birdwatching.
Progress
The Underline is a $120 million project that is funded by the Miami-Dade County, the State of Florida,
FDOT, the cities of Miami, Coral Gables, and South Miami, as well as a number of foundations. The project is broken down into 9 phases, each phase estimated to take 1-1.5 years to complete. The timeline may be expedited if funding increases. At this point, 3 of the 9 phases are fully funded including phase 1, 2, and 5. Construction of phase 1, Brickell Backyard, began December 10, 2018 and is projected to be completed come June 2020.
Sources
https://icma.org/articles/article/boulders-plan-become-child-and-youth-friendly-city
https://www.theunderline.org/#design
https://www.theunderline.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/The-Underline_Framework-Plan-and-Demonstration-Projects_screen_revised-0205_2016-FINAL.pdf
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