Urban Design - Master Plan

LIBERTY SQUARE

The original Liberty Square development (often referred to as the Pork & Beans) in its original iteration was a 753-unit Miami-Dade public housing apartment complex located on (9) nine city blocks (roughly 49 acres) in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami, Florida. It is bordered by Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (NW 62nd Street) to the south, NW 67th Street to the north, State Road 933 (NW 12th Avenue) to the east, and NW 15th Avenue to the west. Originally constructed as a part of the “New Deal” by the Public Works Administration during the Roosevelt administration, the first 243 single-family units opened to tenants in February of 1937 as the first public housing project for African Americans in the Southern United States. Upon completion of the initial development in 1937, very little else has been contributed and most of the original buildings remained in distress while still faintly providing much needed housing needs of the current Miami-Dade residents.

In 2015 the Miami-Dade County Department of Public Housing and Community Development (PHCD) released a request for proposal (RFP) for the solicitation of a joint public private partnership for the redevelopment of a “New Liberty Square.” MODIS Architect worked in conjunction with Related Urban Development Group (RUDG) in response to the RFP developing an overall masterplan for the redevelopment. The solution envisioned and presented by the team was selected and the team was ultimately awarded the project later that year.

The masterplan submitted envisioned the demolition of the original 753-unit Miami-Dade public housing apartment complexes and providing a little more than 2,000 new mixed income residential housing (comprised of public, affordable, work force, and “for sale”) units within a variety of housing options. The options proposed range from a mixture of three-story garden style walk-ups, midrise multi-family, and “for sale” townhome options. The overall masterplan features elements essential for a thriving community comprised of a new commercial space, a new community health facility, a new community center functioning as the heart of the community providing “youth enrichment” with afterschool tutoring, meals, and activities, athletic fields, child playgrounds, and a grocery store providing access to fresh, affordable, and nutritious food in what was considered a “Food Desert”. The ultimate goal of the overall masterplan is to create a true community where the residents of Liberty Square could feel safe and ultimately be proud of.

MODIS Architects worked collectively with Related Urban Development Group (RUDG), Miami-Dade County, and the Miami-Dade County Department of Public Housing and Community Development (PHCD), to study the logistics and proposed phasing of the redevelopment to ensure that none of the current 600 residents of Liberty Square would be displaced during construction.