Museum Park (Miami)
| Museum Park | |
|---|---|
 Museum Park as seen from the Marquis Residences in June 2014 | |
 | |
| Type | Municipal |
| Location | Downtown, Miami, Florida, United States |
| Coordinates | 25°47′02″N 80°11′13″W / 25.784°N 80.187°W |
| Area | 30 acres (0.12 km2) |
| Created | 1976 |
| Operated by | Bayfront Park Management Trust |
| Public transit access | Museum Park (Metromover station) |
Museum Park is a 30-acre (0.12 km2) public, urban park in downtown Miami, Florida. The park opened in 1976 as Bicentennial Park on the site of several slips served by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad. For some time It was named "Bicentennial Park" to celebrate the bicentennial of the United States in that same year. Today, Museum Park is maintained by the Bayfront Park Management Trust. The park is bordered on the north by I-395, Metromover, and the former Miami Herald headquarters, on the south by the American Airlines Arena and Bayside Marketplace, on the west by Biscayne Boulevard and on the east by Biscayne Bay.
Museum Park is served by the Metrorail at Government Center Station and directly by the Metromover's Museum Park Station, Eleventh Street Station and Park West Station.
Museum Park is host to many large-scale events as the park can hold around 45,000 people. Some of these events include Ultra Music Festival, a large, three-day music event, numerous rock concerts such as Warped Tour, various conventions, concerts, as well as boat tours around Biscayne Bay. In March 2009, Museum Park was set to host the Langerado Music Festival, a large three-day festival that was held at the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation every Spring since 2003, but was canceled due to poor ticket sales.
Seven blocks south, is Bicentennial Park's partner park, the 32-acre (0.13 km2) Bayfront Park.
Museum Park is currently undergoing a renovation for the Pérez Art Museum Miami and construction of the new Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science. The $10 million revamp will include a new baywalk and a promenade from Biscayne Boulevard to Biscayne Bay that will provide pedestrian access to the museums.[1] as it is currently underutilized for large parts of the year. Pérez Art Museum Miami opened in December 2013 and construction of the Frost Museum of Science is due to be completed in 2015.
History
From the early 1900s to the mid-1960s, Bicentennial Park was the location of the Port of Miami, until it eventually moved to neighboring Dodge Island in the mid-1960s. The port at what is today Bicentennial Park was then a bustling cargo, trade and passenger port, with the offices of Clyde Mallory Lines at the park. Once the port moved out to Dodge Island, the land was cleaned up of industrial residue from decades of port trade, and the park was designed, finally opening up in 1976, as Downtown's second large park after Bayfront Park. The name "Bicentennial Park" signifies the bicentenary of the independence of the United States in that same year. [2][3]
In May 1994, the Omni Loop of the Metromover opened, which brought a Metromover station to at the time Bicentennial Park. In 1996 Bicentennial Park Station was closed due to lack of use. In 2013 the station was renovated and reopened as Museum Park Station to provide direct access to the art and science museums.
Auto racing
Racing events were held on a temporary circuit at the park from 1986-1995 involving IMSA, Trans-Am Series, and CART, and again for FIA Formula E in 2015.
- For sports car races, see Grand Prix of Miami (sports car racing)
- For open wheel races, see Grand Prix of Miami (Indycar)
Gallery
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Western corner of Bicentennial Park in 2008, as seen from The Grand Doubletree
