A 10-mile, $120 million transit corridor and public space poised to change how the city moves Many of the new generation of superstar urban park projects came to fruition with interesting origin stories. Atlanta?s Beltline was a creative grad school thesis turned into multibillion-dollar urban redevelopment. The High Line and Chicago?s 606 reclaimed abandoned rail lines after years of community activism.
Miami?s forthcoming Underline, by contrast, came to shape after Meg Daly, a digital marketer and the founder and president of the nonprofit backing the project, broke her arms five years ago. Incapacitated and largely limited to going to and from physical therapy, Daly realized she could take the city?s Metrorail and then walk to her doctor?s appointment. During one trip, she passed underneath the concrete pillars of the rail line, on a dark, shaded public path, and had an epiphany. ?Maybe because I was walking and experiencing it for the first time, it made me think, ?Why don?t we do something like this, a park below Metrorail, inspired by the High Line"?? she told Curbed. ??Why don?t we do this, that?ll be easy.? I clearly didn?t know what I was getting into.?
Daly?s story illustrates the philosophy behind, and potential of, one of Miami and the nation?s most intriguing park projects. The 10-mile linear park, a $120 million redevelopment of open space under a span of Metrorail tracks roughly parallel to the north end of the Miami River, will link the condos,...