The Related Group is campaigning for the creation of a public bay walk through Edgewater, a wide pedestrian promenade with benches, art, shade trees, and occasional parks which they call the Biscayne Line. It will be a major step forward for the urban growth, and pedestrian accessibility, of the entire neighborhood, making the entire waterfront a completely public amenity. A survey they commissioned from Arquitectonica (above and below the jump) maps out the current waterfront conditions, suggesting what can easily be implemented in the near future, and what might be more difficult.
Branching off from the two parks they're building in the area, Icon Bay Park and Paraiso Park, the Biscayne Line would ultimately run the entire length of Edgewater's bayfront from Albert Pallot Park, just to the north of the Julia Tuttle Causeway, to Museum Park to the south, creating a publicly accessible waterfront for the entire length of Edgewater, and linking up with the rest of Miami's bay walk infrastructure.
Although a bay walk for the entire urban core of Miami is actually already law, it's only required that new construction incorporate a bay walk in its design, leaving the obvious dilemma of what to do with existing structures that aren't going anywhere anytime soon, and how to link it all together into one cohesive whole. The Arquitectonia survey shows that a surprisingly significant portion of the bay walk either already exists or will soon. In the southern quadrant of Edgewater, larger properties make implementation easy where it doesn't already exist. The northern quadrant is where things get a little hairier, but is luckily where Related and other developers are having an impact in a big way.
· Museum Park's bay walk is open.
·The old Miami Herald Building site will have it once whatever ends up getting built there is built.
· There's a wide, rarely used walkway behind the Venetia, Marriott, and Grand.
· The Miami Women's club has plenty of room for one, and could at least serve as a connector with little more work than the removal of fences.
· Margaret Pace Park has meandering paths and generous open space.
· There's a walkway past Paramount Bay.
· The middle section between Paramount Bay and the under-construction bay walk at The Crimson and Icon Bay is probably the section where the most effort is needed due to its collection of many small properties, and the lack of new development happening.
· In a few years the majority of the bay walk between The Crimson and Paraiso will exist (with the completion of Biscayne Beach) but there are a few small properties that still need to be bridged.
· To the north of that, larger properties mean fewer entities that need convincing to install a bay walk. A chunk already exists behind Hampton on the Bay (mislabeled here as Bay Pointe Place Condos)
· A linkage Between the Charter Club on the Bay and Pallot Park would require diverting the walkway around the base of the Julia Tuttle Causeway until the roadway leaves enough room for clearance underneath.
· Biscayne Line coverage [Curbed Miami]
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