The Uptown Master Plan proposes an entirely new district of residential towers, retail shops, restaurants, offices, and hotel facilities within a 25-acre tract currently developed as two-story garden apartments known as Design Place.  The plan proposes a street pattern that links into the existing urban fabric.

 

The plan has been conceived of ten blocks beginning with the Hotel Block One at the northeast corner and proceeding clockwise to Block Ten.  Each block has been conceived between the T8 and T12 Transect allowable limits as described in the Miami 21 Zoning Code.

 

The towers have been organized to strengthen the street plan and to emphasize certain corners of their respective sites. As a whole, the volume of space in between the towers creating in effect an outdoor room,  particularly evident in the Retail Piazza where the rectangular space created by the combined podium profiles of blocks Eight, Nine, and Ten set up a rectangular plaza with the Third Avenue linear park occupying the center.  The surrounding broad sidewalks with shops and restaurants create a Town center.  The Towers have also been arranged to cooperate to create multiple view corridors within the project to the two park areas and outward across the landscape to Biscayne Bay, Downtown, and city views to the north and west.

 

The two parks within the plan have very different characteristics.  The westerly park at Third Avenue Town center is a long linear green which occupies the center of the principal space, the Retail Piazza.  This park will form the center of the Piazza with broad sight lines across the square to the shops and restaurants. The traffic entering from the North or South is directed into a one-way pattern counterclockwise around the green.  The Town Center Green can is for community events like Farmers’ Markets, Holiday events, themed displays or other activities.  The Fourth Avenue Park to the east of Town Center features a half hemispherical shape with a long-curved face along Blocks Two and Three and a long straight westerly face along Blocks Nine and Ten. The design of this park allows for a recreational play area for the residents, their children, and pets.  The 2 ½ acre park will feature heavily planted areas with thick tree canopies for shade as well as open lawn areas for games.  The Park is surrounded by ground-level retail and restaurants along its West face and Townhomes along its curvilinear east face.  A pedestrian street begins at Block 6, crosses the Town Center Green, continues between Blocks Nine and Ten, then bisects the East Side Green. This broad pedestrian walk ty the district together and will conclude with a pair of restaurants at the lobbies of Blocks Two and Three.

 

Besides the predominant Residential use at each block, the Uptown Plan proposes a Hotel/Restaurant at Block One and an Office Building at Block Six.  Block Six includes two rooftop Event spaces, a multi-purpose ballroom with a kitchen and surrounding galleries for groups to use for receptions, parties, or holiday events.  These two different uses will help tie the District into the surrounding community.  The Hotel is situated close to Biscayne Boulevard to draw from this principal traffic arterial.  Significantly, upper Biscayne Boulevard is experiencing a renaissance with the redevelopment of its Historical Hotels from the 1940s with the reopening of the Vagabond and New Yorker Hotels.  At 79th Street, the former 12 story Immigration Building is being renovated to become a new Hotel.  Uptown will reach out to Biscayne Boulevard with this hospitality product to become part of the emerging entertainment district that is developing.

 

The Office Building at Block Six is also an effort to integrate the project into the neighborhood.  West of the Uptown district is the Jewish Hospital and Rehabilitation Hospital.  Our office building can provide space for medical offices for the various specialists who practice at the Jewish Hospital.  Additionally, among our many residents may be professionals who could benefit from having an office space in the community where they live; creating a true live/work environment.

 

The Uptown Plan also proposes a Magnet/Charter school at Block 4, adjacent to the Archbishop Curley High school playfields.  A new Charter school from grade 6 thru 12 would be a wonderful asset to the community where children simply walk a block or two to go to school. The Charter school could be an enormous marketing advantage that both the Brickell District and the Midtown District lack.  The sales of three, four, and five bedroom units would be enhanced for all of our residential towers.  Additionally, above the Charter school podium, Block 4 provides a Tower of 175 workforce apartments to bring diversity to the range of housing options. This project was created as an Architectural Designer with Modis Architects.