Sights and scenes: Brickell & Downtown Miami

[thelakelander]

Sights and scenes from Florida's largest central business district during New Year's weekend.

Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/sights-and-scenes-brickell-downtown-miami/

[jaxlongtimer]

Ennis, these pictures demonstrate the value of investing in great street and public space infrastructure along with daring, creative and innovative architecture.  In a hundred years, at the rate Jax is going, we couldn't hold a candle to the vibrancy and energy found in these pictures.

While it is fun for North Florida residents to diss about South Florida's crowding and craziness, there is something to be said for the appeal of these cityscapes.

[CityLife]

Nice pics Lake, but I don't think it's possible to fully capture the size and scale of Miami or its vibrancy at street level in a photo essay. Miami now has the 3rd biggest skyline in the US after NYC and Chicago. It has 439 high-rises and 100 buildings taller than 400 feet. By comparison, Jax has 35 high-rises and 5 buildings taller than 400 feet. Miami currently has 18 buildings taller than 400 feet under construction right now. Miami has 19 buildings taller than Jax's tallest building, as well as an additional 11 that are under construction. The skyline there is so big, you can't really see it all in one picture. This is maybe 2/3rd's of it below. You have to be on Miami Beach to really see it all.

https://ik.imagekit.io/virtualresults/wp-sites/tr:di-noimage.png,f-auto,pr-true,fo-auto/app%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2Flei%2F2023%2F05%2Fb8.jpg

[CityLife]

While it is fun for North Florida residents to diss about South Florida's crowding and craziness, there is something to be said for the appeal of these cityscapes.

Did you know that if you overlaid Jax in Dade and Broward Counties, Downtown Jax would be well into the Everglades in many areas? At the absolute widest part of sprawl in Broward and Dade (Weston), 295 West would still be three miles into the Everglades. In Palm Beach and Martin Counties, UNF and the Town Center would be in western preserves in most places.

Imagine what Jax would be like if all development was east of the SJR and everything to the west was preserves or state parks.

[Captain Zissou]

Imagine what Jax would be like if all development was east of the SJR and everything to the west was preserves or state parks.

I have many friends who live off San Pablo or east of the ditch.  Once a month they come into town and have a great time, but it's a long drive and difficult to do now that many of them have young kids.  They always talk about how great Jax would be if downtown was closer to the beach and there wasn't 10 miles of sprawl in between.  Jax has a lot of great things about it, they're just really spread out and there is no benefit to developers to densify or conserve land.  We had a gas station built on 2 acres in land within the downtown overlay.  We have surface parked new construction hotels all over the downtown neighborhoods.  Worst of all, 30 acres of Skinner Family farmland in the heart of the city was just sold off to a multifamily developer for $7M who will build 280 apartments on 25 acres and 100 townhomes on the rest.  This land should have been preserved as a park or purchased by the North Florida Land Trust.  It could have been a wonderful contribution to the surrounding residents and provide some nature in a built out area, but now it will add traffic to aging infrastructure that sees daily wrecks.

[Jax_Developer]

While it is fun for North Florida residents to diss about South Florida's crowding and craziness, there is something to be said for the appeal of these cityscapes.

Did you know that if you overlaid Jax in Dade and Broward Counties, Downtown Jax would be well into the Everglades in many areas? At the absolute widest part of sprawl in Broward and Dade (Weston), 295 West would still be three miles into the Everglades. In Palm Beach and Martin Counties, UNF and the Town Center would be in western preserves in most places.

Imagine what Jax would be like if all development was east of the SJR and everything to the west was preserves or state parks.

We love our 35' building heights at the beach.. Recently had friends in town, and they noticed the large buildings off of Butler right before the beach. Those buildings really tell an interesting tale of demand, politics, and environmental factors. That's why Jacksonville is so odd sometimes.. In markets where this is considerable demand, the politics seems to keep supply down & vice versa. We have more apartments in the pipeline in the far reaches of the north & west side's than ever before.

Miami & other parts of Florida seem to be able to capture the demand in nicer areas much better than we do.