Project Service: Landscape Urbanism

Wilton Drive Conceptual Streetscape Design (Unbuilt)

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The conceptual design for this project sought to capitalize on several opportunities to:

  • rethinking Wilton Drive’s role in the community,
  • giving it a new vision while respecting its small-town character, and
  • turning it into a significant destination and elevate its design offerings with better branding.

In order to meet this vision, CGA’s approach was to develop a design that fundamentally sought to highlight ‘place-making’ and social character. While an understanding of the traffic engineering constraints was important, our belief was that it should not be the sole driving force behind the design, and the project should be about more than just making the corridor visually attractive. Therefore, our approach:

  • encouraged local community identity over generic design solutions; instead it strategized ways to create places that responded to needs of the residents and helped with community cohesion;
  • remained socially connected by understanding that Wilton Drive was not just a roadway, but rather a spine at the social heart and the cultural center of the City. It focused on how people could use the space for everyday activities and for special events, how it could be flexible and adaptable, and how it interacted with adjacent areas to encourage walkability, ease of access and comfort;
  • improved the longer-term “livability”, management and maintenance of the built streetscape environment, including all aspects of its ‘public realm’, to ensure spaces can remain relevant, clean, safe and green;
  • contributed to the achievement of sustainable development by integrating ‘green’ stormwater systems, respected historic context, capitalized on resources, and responded to needs of adaptability; and
  • delivered value, focused on a design process that was shaped around issues of quality, efficiency and overall sustainability.

Lloyds Estates Resiliency Demonstration Project

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As a component of a drainage master plan project, CGA developed an innovative design solution for the implementation of a flood-control dam structure to be coupled with a bio-swale with a tidal wetland landscape typology. The focus of the project was to utilize the proposed pump station site as an opportunity to create an educational pocket park focusing on green and sustainable solutions to marry drainage designs responsive to sea-level rise and tidal impacts. Together, they work to control the impending floods and serve to provide the ecologically significant benefits of tidal wetlands while increasing the holding capacity of the system. Beyond its environmental and engineering impacts, the project also utilizes the opportunity afforded by the site and its location to signal and create a gateway experience for the City, as it is on the edge of the City’s boundary and along a well-transited thoroughfare. The design for the site, despite its size, is envisioned to have a high social impact, as it will be of a high design quality that includes a boardwalk with Folia® educational signage, unique paving design, furnishings for passive uses, native landscaping, branding signage with character lighting design, security features, and the inclusion of a transit bus bay.

Miami Beach Recreational Corridor Phase II

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CGA designed and permitted an on-grade, ADA-accessible pathway that supports the use of pedestrians and cyclists and an integral component of the City’s overall resiliency and climate adaptation plan, directly supporting the City’s investment in strengthening the dunes for storm surge protection and by providing a critical component of its alternative transportation network. The project is a part of the greater Atlantic Greenway Network, and comprises a critical component of the bicycle facilities throughout the City of Miami Beach. It connects Indian Beach Park on the south to the North Beach Recreational Trail at Allison Park with a 2-mile paver walkway, continuing the City’s unique branding qualities.

The path was permitted in accordance with the Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection’s and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s regulations, as the entirety of the project lies within State-owned lands. The scope of work included extensive public outreach, branding and site design, coastal engineering, dune planting plans, lighting design, and bidding and construction administration. The project connects business districts, cultural/tourism centers, parks, residential neighborhoods and the beaches, and it completed a major portion of the essential north-south connector of the AGN to facilitate pedestrian and non-motorized transportation throughout the City.

North Bay Road Pedestrian Bridge

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CGA was retained by the City of Sunny Isles Beach to survey, design, permit, and administer the construction of the North Bay Road Bridge, spanning a canal between 174th St. and 172nd St. along North Bay Road. The principal function of the bridge is to provide pedestrian access across the canal, as well as it is designed to provide access to emergency vehicles as a bypass to Collins Ave. during periods of heavy traffic congestion.

The CGA team approached the project first as a ‘place’ and a pedestrian amenity, and second as an emergency access last. The design was centered on creating a park-like setting with planting and seating that would appeal to pedestrian use and would promote lingering. A strong branding strategy was embedded within the hardscape design that reinforced the concept of using infrastructure as a recreational asset and in turn has established it as a landmark within the City. The project included several work efforts adjacent to the bridge, including the construction of an observation deck in Town Center Park, located at the eastern end of the canal, and a boardwalk connecting the deck to the North Bay Road bridge. Associated drainage, roadway, utility, and hardscape improvements were made along 174th St. and 172nd St. to account for the increased drainage and other impacts to the surrounding infrastructure.

The project involved intensive coordination with regulatory agencies, utilities, government entities, and local stakeholders. The CGA team was able to procure all necessary permits to conduct the work on schedule.

Oakland Park Station

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CGA was contracted by the City of Oakland Park to design a public plaza at a prominent location within the City’s Culinary District. The public plaza is the linchpin to the newly established District’s catalyst for redevelopment, serving as a connective means and threshold to a brewery being proposed in a presently vacant industrial building. The goal of the plaza’s design was to meet the goals of the District’s master plan in contributing spaces of value for social, public use to increase the pedestrian experiences being lent by the District. Additionally, the plaza provides ample areas and infrastructure to serve as the designated location for future street markets – this includes ample electrical connection stations, a flexible elevated area that can be used as a stage area, and ample outdoor seating opportunities through the use of elevated planters with seat walls.

The design of the plaza required very close attention to detail design to ensure that the quality of the space was of a high architectural quality, consistent with the initial branding strategies already embarked by the City. Lastly, the project was conceived, design and developed through a cooperative process with the assigned City officials, the developers and adjacent property owner, lease and their contractor, and finally with the City-selected contractor contracted to build the plaza project. This coordination was a highlight of the project which ensured that the design ideas were clearly communicated and translated into the implementation phase, that all in-building needs were met and scheduled so as to not conflict with the plaza’s tight construction schedule, and that the continuity and balance of design elements was achieved between the public space and the improvements proposed by the adjacent building in terms of design treatments, color, signage and motifs.

Urban Forestry Master Plan

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In partnership with Davey Resource Group and Calvin, Giordano and Associates, Inc. (CGA) has developed an Urban Forestry Master Plan, focused on managing the City’s trees into the future. The plan establishes a clear set of priorities and objectives that aid in the management, maintenance, and future planting of trees throughout the City by providing a sustainable and strategic framework.

CGA’s primary contribution to the master plan was the development of an implementable ‘Tool Kit’ that advances the recommendations in the master plan to generate standards that guide the roll-out of these. The ‘Tool Kit’ includes specific case studies of unique conditions in the City that address the intersection of urban forestry considerations with issues such as historic preservation, sea-level rise, and community/neighborhood identities with a focus on satisfying the City’s goal to have strategies in place to increase resiliency and climate adaptation. Additionally, the ‘Tool Kit’ establishes acceptable plant palettes and the species’ most desirable use-situations, as well as constructability standards for balancing adequate root-growth zones with green infrastructure and urban streetscape build-out conditions. Finally, the ‘Tool Kit’ establishes a street-tree prioritization plan to guide future streetscape projects, examines and establishes a metric of measurement to define “success” in future-planned City projects across several different departments, and it establishes parameters to facilitate the cost estimating and planning for these during the budget cycles and scope processes of each project.