Miami’ s Metrorail Orange Line
Daniel Diaz
Degree Project Seminar
Prof. Anne Tate
Fall 2010
M.I.A Airport
FRAGMENT FIU Campus
US-1
Place The place of my proposal is the site where a new extension of Miami’s Metrorail is going to be constructed. The extension is called the Orange line.
Intersecting transit systems
Downtown Miami
Covered escalator for the Metrom over
one of many gated communities with no pedestrian sidewalks
Miami, FL
“The Orange Line will be a 24.4 mile (40 km) heavy rail, light rail, or Bus Rapid Transit line for Miami Metrorail in Miami, Florida, that will be operated by Miami-Dade Transit. It will consist of three corridors, totaling 24.4 miles of rapid transit. The three segments that have completed the planning phase and are ready to enter into final design and construction are the North Corridor, Earlington Heights-MIC Connection, and East-West Corridor, all of which will be parts of the Orange Line. The East-West Corridor is a 10.6-mile expansion from the Miami Intermodal Center west to the Palmetto Expressway (SR 826). These sites have been identified as potential station locations: Florida International University, 107th Avenue, 97th Avenue, 87th Avenue, 72nd Avenue, Waterford, and Miami Intermodal Center. Metrorail's Orange Line was planned to be completed in 2020 in two phases; north to run along NW 27th Ave to NW 215th Street (County Line) and West to areas like Miami International Airport, Florida International University(see The Orange Line). Long-term plans drawn in 2002 also gave ideas to extend the system so it serves more of Coral Gables, as well as entering western Kendall, and Aventura. These plans have been put into indefinite hold as crucial federal funding for such projects has been revoked for the time being. The first segment of Orange Line, Metrorail's AirportLink[10] began in June 2009; service to Miami International Airport is scheduled to begin in spring 2012. The Miami-Dade County Government is working with the Citizens Independent Transportation Trust to receive money from the half-penny sur-tax approved by voters in 2002 in order to purchase new Metrorail cars.� Referance Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Line_(MDT)
History The city of Miami flourished with the introduction of the railroad line. When the railroad reached Biscayne Bay, downtown Miami, in 1896, the population was just fifty inhabitants. Two years later after the rail lines’ incorporation, there were approximately four hundred inhabitants. Flagger, a rail line tycoon during this period essential laid Miami’s foundation by the expansion of the rail line to isolated region. With just a feat, it was not surprising that Flagler was seen as a hero and attempts to rename the city after him were brought forth , which he rejected. He was nevertheless a shrewd businessman. He understood that there was little point in building a railroad if there were no people to stay or operate an isolated hotel. Therefore, to protect his railroad investment, he developed the area surrounding the station. He built roads, power and water stations, and dredged canals, and surveyed the town laying streets and walkways.. Henry Flagler was Miami’s first largescale developer and an important speculator. He is so important to the city that there is no denying the fact that without Henry Flagler, there would not have been a city of Miami in 1896. Flagler gave birth to Miami. He connected the area to the rest of the country and brought considerable investment and people to the city. Like many to follow him, he was also directly responsible for building and marketing the city to new visitors and residents, as well as giving Miami its resort identity. Miami was in essence born from his capitalistic and speculative founding principles that gave an identity from his vision. These ideals and principles have molded the urban fabric for its entire existence. World War II was a crucial occurrence which that of an important boost to South Florida. During the War, Miami served as a training ground for hundreds of thousands of troops. The government invested millions in infrastructure in the region, which left Miami out of the Great Depression. The most important aspect of the War’s influence was the shift in the developers target market, from luxurious hotels to affordable homes. This was due to the fact that many soldiers that were stationed in Miami returned and started their families. There, new entrepreneurial residents, who saw opportunity in the region laid out by previous pioneers, would contribute economically to the young city. This occurrence was a double-edged sword in the course of miami’s urbanization, as it eventually lead to the defragmentation of the city. With this pressing need for new affordable housing, South Florida had its most rapid and troubling change. New families began to expand into the single-use suburbs of the fifties and sixties, where cheap land was available, abandoning the city .This mirrored trends nationwide where the family lifestyle or dream was in favor of cheap homes out west. Popular culture contributed to this suburban ideal: Deniss the Menace, Dick van Dyke, I Dream of Jeannie, and Bewitched. The few but viable urban and walkable spaces left in Miami would be abandoned for the air conditioner and the automobile.
1910 - the lush gardens at the Royal Palm Hotel, Miami
1919 - Map of Miami and Miami Beach with old street numbering system
1963- Palmetto Expressway at Bird Road with Tropical Race Track at top
1940's - aerial postcard image of downtown Miami and Bayfront Park
1950's - aerial view looking west over downtown Miami
2007 - aerial view of I-95, SR 836 and I-395 interchange and part of downtown Miam
Media and social conditioning led to the fragmentation of the urban landscape and destruction of one of the few mixed use urban centers in the region, Downtown Miami. Returning veterans gave in to the American dream with its imagery of the white picket fence, a yard, and a car. The car gave the allure of freedom and mobility, which gave developers more of a reason to move even further west in to the Everglades. The City of Miami, which at this point had a meager but sustainable downtown, was ripped apart. But it transformed and grew enormously. Isolated pieces of suburban development in the forms of single-use zoned residences, office parks, and shopping centers such as Dadeland in South Dade would eventually become strip malls that would dominate construction for the next forty years. Today Miami is faced with the problems associated which this ideology of planning, which manifests itself in the fracturing and divided urban sprawl in Miami’ suburbia. Together, the individual fragments make up the entire metropolitan region of South Florida. The power of land speculation when combined with individual developers cannot be underestimated in Miami. The combined effects these two forces have had on the structure of the urban fabric and their ability to operate almost unshaken for about a century must be accepted. They have molded Miami into a land of individual speculation, land deals, and development unique in the country. Internet tycoons, out of state and international investors, and new overnight developers all came to Miami with speculative ideals of prosperity, some even with rags to riches stories. South Florida after all continues its story as the wild west of land speculation in an exotic tropical environment.
Opportunity I have always been interested in the idea of reconnecting the city with its lost parts, its suburbs. Paths are the reoccurring routes of preference, these are the ones I want for this transportation system to reconnect and tap into. The transportation system in Miami is where I believe the most impact and improvement of this deficiency can be re-addressed. The city is considering the expansion of its Metrorail train system towards Miami International Airport (M.I.A.). Surprisingly, M.I.A wasn’t connected to the city before, in terms of mass transit, and it seems crucial to do so. This is important because it would free up the parking garage, as people take the metro to catch a fight, to go downtown, to the beach, etc. An expansion to the west, where most of Miami’s suburbs exist, forgotten, seems to be the next proposed expansion of the same line. This new line is called the “West Corridor” line, which to me seems like an interesting name to give the project. The opportunity I see is really dealing with the construction of these stations. I’m interested in its programming and creating a places of interest were people will attend and be drawn towards. Even though it may be a dream project which will never come into existence. I want to celebrate these stations as I see them having the potential in recreating the image of Miami’s transportation system, from being a place with asshole drivers to a place where good mass transit, exists, that connects communities and cultivates inspiration.
Miami_Dade_county
Why not connect the mass transit system in a loop? The Metro Mover in downtown is a great example that demostrats its effectiveness.
Present
≈70°
≈70° ≈70°
Metrorail line/loop
Proposal Sensoral + Expericane ≈70°
-Outside spaces -Park pathways -Greener transportation
≈70°
Proposal A personal experience that motivated my pursuit into the realm of public transportation was a visit I took this past winter to Zurich, Switzerland. This visit was trough an architecture course, lead by Swiss architects that gave a tour at the end of our stay. In the limited time we had left, we journeyed the city’s edges to experience many hidden good architecture design. One piece that stirred excitement in me was the Bahnhof Stadelhofen train station. This mass transit node was designed by Santiago Calatrava and presented a model of the woven relationship between structure and site. Our guide let us roam individually in this structure, which allowed us freedom to find and investigate through our own curiosity and leisure. The station cuts into a sloped terrain and presented a example how to celebrate the procession between the above and the ground underneath. The station connected a variety of programs that include suburban community, city, a school campus, and a small commercial shopping center. The movement through the station was what captivated me. I felt as though I was within a story or film that was unfolding as I was walking along its curved paths. Elements such as a play between light and shadow added to this effect. What I appreciated the most was its strong hardscape pathways with their many joints that were structural and architectonic. This was architecture that you have to experience to fully understand its hidden nature and beauty. I took with me an experience which has potential within all of our infrastructural spaces. My proposal for is similar to Calatrava’s station as a connector archetype and opposite as it’s in the subtropics. What it connects is a re-inventive landscape, a reconstructive hardscape, a healthier suburban community, and an infrastructure that will re-connect itself with Miami’s metro area. How these entities interact was the parameter in the design of the space. The architecture of this region is quite simple. The main design principle is to allow cross ventilation that provides shading along pathways. A personal passion of mine is the rainfalls in these types of regions. I always enjoyed hearing the sound of rain. Even when I’m inside and the blinds are closed, I easily find peace during these periods. As I usually walk to the stations in Miami under these rainfalls, I find puddles and water moving and dripping, hitting on to different surfaces, and reflecting the light from above. It is soothing and calming, yet I need not want to get wet. Understanding the idiosyncratic nature of way finding and what its genius loci’s are are what I want the station to capture. I want to celebrate the mass transit and its new connection with the quiet of the suburbs, giving it a much needed jumpstart for activity and change away from negative lifestyles.
Perspective
Water ford
Milam Dairy
Palmetto
Pathway
green buffer
Transit
Water ford
metrorail
cars
Milam Dairy
Palmetto