Design Scheme
New ‘MiMo’ Inspired Sidewalks Proposed for Biscayne Boulevard

Biscayne Boulevard’s 1950s-era motels are located within the Miami Modern Historic District. Mitchell Zachs/MagicalPhotos.com.

“You are asking them to stop this?”

By Bonnie Schindler

In the Miami Modern Historic District and possibly elsewhere on Biscayne Boulevard, design elements are being created from the ground up. Literally.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Miami Historic and Environmental Preservation Board unanimously approved an application to install decorative pavement along the public thoroughfare on the Boulevard between NE 67^th and NE 87^th streets.

“The proposed pattern consists of overlapping biomorphic trapezoids, accented with Sputnik-like stars,” said Preservation Officer Kathleen Kauffman of the stencil-type application, set in colors such as avocado, gold and muted coral, and is a “topper over pavement.”

The topping will not chip, peel or crack, and requires little maintenance, according to architect Harry Belton of the design company PBS&J. “It adheres to the cement, even if it has already been poured,” he said.

Belton’s client is the Florida Department of Transportation, the state agency that is currently ripping up and rebuilding several miles of streets and sidewalks as part of the $54 million Biscayne Boulevard Reconstruction Project.

“The design was created after researching the characteristics and design elements found in mid-century modern architecture,” Kauffman said.

In fact, the style of the pattern is reminiscent of the area’s corridor in the mid-20th century. And since this strip of Biscayne Boulevard is now part of a historic district, Kauffmann feels it is vital that the streets in the MiMo area have a distinct look.

However, the street designations approved during the meeting won’t cover the entire MiMo Historic District. “The Biscayne Boulevard/MiMo District extends along Biscayne Boulevard from NE 50^th Street to the southern side of NE 77^th Street,” states an HEPB fact sheet. The decorative pavement will also include several blocks north of the historic district.

Kauffman explained that the Biscayne Boulevard project has been broken up into numerous contracts; therefore PBS&J does not have the luxury of simply applying the topping to only those streets designated by Miami as historic.

So the city planners added a recommendation that PBS&J’s designers work with FDOT to touch up only the MiMo District streets.

Board Member Lourdes Solera questioned the recommendation

“You are asking them to stop this?” she asked. “[Why wouldn’t we] want this beyond the historic district?”

Kauffmann said stopping it at the district’s border is important because businesses and residents get special treatment if the district they are in is designated historical.

“This should be a benefit of being in a historic district,” the preservation officer said. “We gave them a historic district, now let’s give them benefits.”

There were other concerns as well.

Because the pattern would only be applied to the Biscayne Boulevard walkways, some board members wondered how the application would match up with the residential areas beyond the Boulevard.

HEPB member Gerald Marston suggested the patterned design go far enough around the corner to make it blend in to the neighborhood.

Both Solera and board member Miguel Seco told the designers to maybe begin stretching out the frequency of the shapes as they round the corners, thereby fading the design into the residential sidewalks, which will be blank cement.

The HEPB’s approval does not finalize FDOT’s plans, and Belton said the firm would continue to work on the design. For now, thanks to the board’s green light, the ideas will be put forward to area residents and businesses during a public meeting presented by FDOT sometime later this month.

For now, the folks living and working along the Boulevard have no idea that the distinctions of the district are being deliberated, said HEPB member Jane Caporelli. “You are giving them something special that they don’t even know about.”

And while items on the agenda have to go through a series of approvals and modifications, the new year brought instantaneous changes to HEPB.

Both incumbent Andy Parrish, Jr., and board member Timothy Barber were nominated for the chairman position.

“We need to rotate; we need to have fresh blood,” said Caporelli, who nominated Barber for the head position.

Agreeing, and then thanking the board for creating citywide improvements and accountability, Parrish, Jr. withdrew from the race.

Barber took the seat following an 8 – 0 vote, and humbly conducted the meeting.

“[I would like to] thank everyone on the board for their confidence,” Barber said.

Comments? E-mail letters@miamisunpost.com.