Contemporary Miami Tour

MIAMI

Contemporary

Miami has evolved from a resort city to a Latin American refugee center to a cultural/financial tropical center financed by coke and real state speculation; but something that has remained through the years is the party/hakunamatta attitude and the tropical vegetation — so get ready to explore the futuristic side Miami

Time period: 2020s

Movie/book: 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)/Miami Beach by Horacio Silva

Soundtrack: Steven Aoki/Diplo

Fashion: white outfit, linen shirt plus a hat (and a tote bag)

Budget:

Satellite image of Miami from Google Maps

This tour would take you through the streets of Downtown Miami-Brickell the neighborhood where the city started and where luxury condominiums and offices for financial institutions have been built. The area is characterized by elevated trains, contemporary architecture, and the Miami River. The destroyed downtown of Miami (after the construction of the freeway) is finally getting rebuilt but this time with luxury condominiums and office towers. Although since the 80s there has been efforts to make downtown the financial center of Miami, it wasn’t until the late 2010s that the area picked up momentum thanks to 3 different urban development projects: Brickell City Center, The Miami Worldcenter and The Downtown/Arts & Entertainment District.

In 1986 the free elevated train system of downtown town Miami got innagurated known as the Metromover, then in 1994 the system got expanded with the Brickell line to the south of the river and the Omni to the north.

The first two were conceived as mini cities (one on each side of the river) with retail space, offices, apartments and hotels within walking distance and the latter as a handful of venues and museums around The Signature Bridge — the new icon of the city

. The first phase of the revolutionary Brickell City Center got completed in 2016, boosting the gentrification of the forgotten millionaires row of Miami into a financial district/high end residential area with shops, gourmet restaurants and roof top bars. The Miami Worldcenter first phase got completed in 2019 bringing retail space, public spaces and more high end condominiums to the downtown area.

The pandemic instead of shutting down the city, it help Miami to become the Wall Street South as over 50 investment firms moved headquarters from NYC to Florida between 2020 and 2023 including the hedge funds Citadel, BlackRock or

and the latter as a handful of venues and museums around the new icon of the city, The Signature Bridge. This has allowed renowned architects to modernize the city with their visions like Zaha Hadid One Thousand Museum, Herzog and de Meuron Pérez Museum (plus other projects in the city)

Brickell City Center

Arts & Entertainment District of Miami

Zaha Hadid

Elevated metromover system

Hedge Fund Week

Wall Street South

Krypto

In recent years Miami has experienced a financial boom due to the lose laws of Florida during the pandemic, which sparked the gentrification of the center of the city. Projects like the Brickell City Center, the metro rail system (plus the free metromover), and the Arts & Entertainment District of Miami made downtown an attractive place to live; and an impressive construction boom of luxury condominiums fuel by financial speculation is taking place. Miami is no longer a beach resort town but a financial center with a vibrant contemporary culture fuel by the migration of krypto kids and threaten by global warming or the price of Bitcoin. The tour suggests walking around the Miami Arts & Entertainment District in the morning, then chill in the afternoon at a park and the Miami River Walk, and finishing the day shopping, dinning and drinking around Brickell.