Downtown Miami

With its profusion of gleaming office buildings towering over smaller Cuban-owned businesses, Downtown Miami, also known as the Central Business District (or CBD), simultaneously  shows the city at its most Anglo and its most Latin. From a distance, the sparkling high-rises make Miami look much like any other modern American metropolis; it’s only when you’re standing below those skyscrapers, surrounded by jostling crowds and noisy traffic, that the feel of a Latin American capital takes over. If the place all feels a bit overwhelming, don’t be discouraged- Downtown is actually one of Miami’s most compact districts, and holds two of the area’s best museums, whiling giving the clearest sense of the everyday influence Cuba has on the city, from office workers lighting at tiny street side cafes for a morning cafecito, or Cuban coffee, to the bilingual signage in almost every store. The vibrant Cuban music spilling from almost every store onto the sidewalk is likely these days to be accompanied by the banging and crashing of construction; Downtown’s the target for much of the new high-rise condo development mushrooming around the city. Though at the time of writing there were under 1000 residents in the CBD, more than 30,000 new homes are set to hit the market in the next five years and look likely to not only transform the skyline but the atmosphere here.

Geographically, the Miami River divides downtown: on the South side, big business and big buildings line Brickell Avenue, known as “Millionaires Row” in the early twentieth century. The surrounding area, bounded by I-95 to the west, Coconut Grove to the south, and Biscayne Bay to the east, is known as Brickell; boasting one of the densest concentration of new high-rise homes, it is becoming the district of choice of Miami’s young professionals.
North of the river, things are less modern but more interesting. Flagler Street functions as the cities central artery, joining Bayfront Park with the Metro-Dade Cultural Center to the west. It’s a commercial bazaar that hums with, jewellers, fabric stores and cheap electronic outlets. There are a few name-brand shops here: this is a place of diners and discounters, stores in low-slung buildings playing loud music and spilling their wares out onto the sidewalk. At the same time, Flagler Street also offers up a successful showcase of the architecture on which modern Miami was built, beginning with the Alfred I. Dupont building.
Further north, past the iconic, if derivative, Freedom Tower, lie Overtown and Liberty City, two of Miami’s historically black neighbourhoods. Both are areas that the strenuous tourist gloss applied by the city in the late 1990’s has yet to reach, and can still be somewhat dicey. Though they’ve yet to benefit from the economic upsurge elsewhere in the city, they exude a fierce sense of history, and it’s worth visiting one or both during the day or on an organized tour. The CBD is definitely a place to visit during the day-and weekends and in the evening, restaurants usually shut down since few of the would-be tenants have yet moved into their new downtown homes. However, public transportation is thorough and an elevated monorail, the free Metromover circles downtown’s main loop, making it a handy way to orient yourself.

Flagler Street and around

The heart of Downtown Miami is Flagler Street, choked with cheap fabric stores, electronic shops, and, for some reason, dozens of discount shoe outlets. The other notable industry here is gemstones: the Seybold Building, which sprawls for a block between Miami and NE 1st avenues, is a hotbed hub of diamond trading- but also be informed and be prepared to haggle (it’s not for amateurs). Although at lunchtime the area’s throbbing with life, by 6 pm its deserted: unlike many other American city centers, Miami is in the early stages of its residential revitalization, and there are few apartment complexes or converted lofts Downtown open yet, though with the ferocious construction currently under way, scores of residents (by some estimates, up to 40,000 people) will move in over the next two years or so and likely enliven the area come night time.
Along the street there are a few architectural highlights, as well as the mother lode of Miami’s cultural elite (at least for now): the Metro-Dade Cultural Center. This ochre coloured, low slung building stands out amid the gleaming metal and glass that dominates the rest of the Downtown; it’s full of grand intentions as a public place, but frankly falls a little flat Architectural legend and pioneer Phillip Johnson designed the complex to ape an old fort, echoing the Mediterranean Revival style found elsewhere in the city: the result is a series of anodyne  ranch buildings around a communal piazza that remains eternally empty thanks the punishing Miami sun. Still, at the moment, the center boasts two of Downtown’s top attractions, the Historical Museum of South Florida and the Miami Art Museum.

The Alfred I. DuPont Building and the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts

Two notable buildings stand along the eastern portion of  Flagler Street near 2nd SE Avenue, the Alfred I. DuPont Building, at no. 169, is one of the best examples of Depression Moderne design in the city, with its simple but impossible black façade. Now home to Florida National Bank, the first floor is open to the public, so feel free to wander through during office hours and catch its spectacular and ornate interior. Note especially the fanciful wrought-iron screens, frescoes of Florida scenes, and bronze bas-relief elevator doors with egrets and herons.
Opposite the DuPont Building, at no. 174, the Olympia Theatre at the Gusman Center for Performing Arts was built in 1926 as a vaudeville house. Much like the Mathesons and their mustard-gas millions, the Gusmans profited through government contracts in World War 1; theirs was to provide condoms for departing American soldiers. The building’s hodgepodge of architectural styles best approximates a Spanish-Moorish theme, with turrets, towers, and intricately detailed columns, and recent renovations have brought out the stunning moldings in its lobby ceiling; it’s also noteworthy as the first air-conditioned building in Miami. However, the only way you’ll be able to see inside the whole building (and not just the lobby) is by catching a performance-if you do, note the kitschy ceiling in the auditorium, twinkling with fake stars and the illusion of slowly moving clouds.

Burdine’s and the Coppertone sign

Further west along Flagler, on the corner with Miami Avenue, stands the first in the Burdine’s department store chain at no.22 (now owned by, and recently rebranded as, Macy’s). The structure’s notable for the Streamline Moderne design, all hard edges rounded off and corners curved to convey gentle movement; the extension across Miami Avenue was put up immediately after World War II. This first outpost of “ Florida’s department store” was founded as a dry goods shop in 1898, a mere two years after the city was incorporated, by William Burdine, who traded refined sugar, cloth, and nails for Native American pelts.
Crossing over Miami Avenue onto West Flagler Street, look for the giant relief of the famous Coppertone Sign-a young girl whose pet dog is tugging down her bikini bottom- that was based on a seaside snapshot (it’s not, as urban legend has it, Jodie Foster). Originally located along Biscayne Boulevard, the iconic sign was moved here when the building to which it was attached was demolished; it’s showcased simply because the office block was owned by a preservation-minded member of the Dade Heritage Trust, which spearheaded the campaign to save the sign.