Midtown Miami, likely one of the largest urban infill development projects in the country, encompasses a 56-acre site formerly used by the Port of Miami as a storage facility for shipping containers. Identified by Zyscovich as a potential mixed-use district in an early plan for the City of Miami, the firm identified which blocks should contain retail, which commercial/entertainment and which residential.

As the site’s master planners and master architects, the team partnered with the City of Miami’s planning department to examine the zoning and land use and to change the land use from Industrial to Restricted Commercial. Zyscovich then created two Special District Overlays and Design Guidelines to regulate building form, parking, open space, and uses organized around a hierarchy of different streets.

From that point, the neighborhoods within Midtown were further refined. Along the western edge of the site is residential over big box and regional retail. The requirements for the residential buildings include service-oriented ground floor retail and internal parking hidden from the street to further enhance the pedestrian-friendly plan. The northeast portion of the site, known as the Entertainment Block, is planned as an intensely commercial zone created for use by the entire neighborhood and will provide continuous pedestrian activity within, and along, its northern edge which abuts the Miami Design District. It includes two office/showroom buildings with ground floor retail, dining, and shopping that are separated by a one-acre park, as well as a condominium hotel with abundant corner uses and a community theater which will offer cultural activities.