When Meg Daly fell from her bike and broke both of her arms seven years ago, it may have been the most fortuitous accident of the last decade for Miami.
The first section of The Underline, a long-awaited 10-mile linear park in Miami, is opening on November 16. The walkway is designed by the same firm that oversaw New York City’s now-famous High Line and is regenerating the spaces below Miami’s Metrorail system to a destination for urban hikers and art lovers.
The Underline was always an ambitious concept, a $120 million 10-mile linear park that will weave through several municipalities, invigorating the space beneath the Metrorail.
I’ve heard the same refrain from both friends and strangers, over and over, ever since the pandemic hit: “COVID has upended life as I know it. But I’ve found peace along the Detroit Riverfront.”
Miami’s downtown has become home to nearly 100,000 residents and more than 100 residential towers. As more buildings go up and more people decide to live in the dense, vibrant neighborhoods of downtown and Brickell, residents’ call for more parks and open spaces could become all the more acute.
Ambitious plans for construction of the Underline, a 10-mile-long “linear park” for people on foot and on bikes that would run beneath the elevated Metrorail tracks, got a significant lift with the announcement Wednesday of a $22.3 million federal grant for the project.
To promote The Underline’s success as a world-class public space that connects and inspires the community, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced a new $925,000 investment in the development of a technology master plan and expanded professional expertise.
The Underline, a 10-mile linear park below Miami’s MetroRail, has the potential to make the city more equitable by prioritizing affordable housing initiatives so everyone can benefit from the amenity. Several “rails-to-trails” projects around the U.S., like The BeltLine and the High Line, have grappled with concerns of lessened affordability and increased gentrification—and the Underline will have to grapple with it as well.
Congratulations to Friends of the Underline! Construction has begun on the first phase of their much-anticipated project, the Underline, which will eventually extend from downtown Miami to Dadeland under the Metrorail’s elevated tracks. That initial segment, in the Brickell district, will be a half-mile long, with an anticipated opening date of May 2020.
The 10-mile linear park, a $120 million redevelopment of open space under a span of Metrorail tracks, will link the condos, coworking spaces, and tech offices of the booming Brickell neighborhood with South Miami, in a bid to be a catalyst for community, connection, and safer transit.
