Our Streets
Photographic Tour of Downtown Miami
A paradise of architectural diversity flanked by beautiful Biscayne Bay. The original city of Miami was built here, around the current Central Business District, and many a building bears witness to an audacious history.
[Adapted from an article the Miami Herald commissioned me to do. For this Downtown News version, we added magnificent photography by our photographers.]
In dramatic contrast, glassy high-rises reflect an evolving urban affluence — Downtown Miami is becoming a fintech and crypto center.
Downtown boasts world-class museums, opera, ballet, the International Film Fest, and the nation’s largest Book Fair — not to mention Biscayne Bay, a bit damaged but still the main attraction in turquoise and silvery tones. The Baywalk follows it from the Miami River north to the Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM).
Walking is the best way to enjoy our multifaceted neighborhood. One route for my daily walk is down Second Avenue, the historical corridor once considered to replicate New York’s Fifth Avenue. The Ingraham and the Huntington buildings survived the plan that the 1926 hurricane devastated, and knowingly face each other at the corner of SE First Street.
Here, I turn west for one block and up NE First Avenue. Historic relics on both sides greet me: the Classical Old US Post Office and Courthouse, dating to 1912, and now repurposed as La Real Bar and a brewery; the baroque Gesu, Miami’s first Catholic church; and fronting Miami Dade College, vacant and grand, the Neoclassical Dyer US Courthouse.
Miami Dade College is the urban college par excellence, a new tech education destination with emphasis on Artificial Intelligence.
MDC also serves as the threshold to the north and west enclaves, including the Miami Worldcenter, an extraordinary urban development that is transforming decades of neglect into a glittering city within the city, an urbanistic marvel with plazas, promenades, residential towers, hotels, and shopping.
Turning on Tenth Street, the posh Park West towers rise. One Thousand Museum, the jewel by the late architect Zaha Hadid is the only condominium, says a resident, with a rooftop helipad. Ahead, a red light brings Biscayne Boulevard traffic to a halt, and neighbors walk their dogs to Maurice Ferré Park. Homeless men, a dozen, welcome them cheerfully, or aloof ready to sleep on coral rock benches.
Often, I run into the owner of a local club. I asked him why he chose downtown. “Authenticity; downtown breathes diversity — architectural, culinary, ethnic, generational — and had potential. Of course, potential implies risk. Even today, downtown exudes a certain edginess. Sanitized artificiality is not to be found here, not now.”
Five Representative Downtown Places
Area 31. Suspended on the sixteenth floor of the Kimpton EPIC Hotel, Area 31 opens for brunch, lunch, happy hour and dinner. It offers seafood fare, and one matchless panoramic view of the Bay and the Miami River. You stand right above the very spot where Ponce de Leon first met the Tequesta. Ponce de Leon was looking for gold, so, despite friendly greetings and abundant lobster, he left for gold’s second best, the fountain of youth. Alas, a poisoned arrow to the neck killed him before he found it. No worries, suggests a poet, rejuvenation surgery abounds in town. 270 Biscayne Blvd Way, area31restaurant.com
Lost Boy. Cozy and elegant, the bar attracts locals and those who work around the Flagler District. Architects, lawyers, techies, bureaucrats and realtors gravitate to Lost Boy for happy hour, as well as your typical gregarious lady out for a game of pool. Get there by 4:00 pm to take advantage of the half-off happy hour. A regular, gyrating on the barstool, volunteers: “It’s the only place in the area where $7 can get you a G&T, a Martini, or a whiskey and beer combo.” 157 E Flagler St, in the historic DuPont Building. lostboydrygoods.com
La Cañita at Bayside Marketplace. Bayside is an open mall, shop all you want, from Victoria Secret’s lingerie to CBD feel-good candy. Or chill at Michelle Bernstein’s La Cañita, a high-end Cuban restaurant overlooking the marina. Original Pan-Latin with a twist, a principal specifies. The twist is quality ingredients. The fish of the day, for example, is purchased from a local fisherman. About the ambiance, says a waiter: “We wanted it to feel like a rum distillery and add to the experience live music.” Pricy? A bit, but you get what you pay for. 401 Biscayne Blvd., lacanitamiami.com
Frost Science Museum. Occupying the northwest corner of Maurice Ferré Park, it has an aquarium and a planetarium. The Gulf Stream Aquarium spans three floors and includes an oculus and an open tank at the rooftop where one can spy hammerhead sharks and stingrays. Frost Science, the CEO said, aims to inspire an appreciation for the impact science and technology have on every facet of our world. A current exhibit takes visitors alongside wooly mammoths, those gentle giants that made the Ice Age tundra their home. Interactive, state-of-the-art multimedia, Frost Science is a family must. 1101 Biscayne Blvd., frostscience.org
The Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. The catalyst for downtown’s renaissance is home to the Florida Grand Opera, the City of Miami Ballet, Broadway in Miami, and its Brava Restaurant will satiate hungry culturists. 1300 Biscayne Blvd., arshtcenter.org.
