DRB Approves Plans for Brittany Bay Park

Miami Beach's first hybrid seawall incorporating a living shoreline will be constructed at Brittany Bay Park (6444 Indian Creek Drive). The Design Review Board (DRB) today approved the City's plans for the park which include increasing resiliency and creating a more diverse natural habitat. The seawall at each end will be capped and elevated to the new standards for sea level rise, but in the middle, the wall will be brought into the park, creating a new wetland area over the old seawall with three observation decks. City of Miami Beach Sustainability Manager Flavia Tonioli said the City plans to save the existing mangroves and add new species to create the living shoreline which will help to stabilize the old wall as well as reduce greenhouse emissions. Tonioli said one of her favorite things about the design is the addition of the observation areas. Looking at them from the adjacent Collins Avenue to the water, she said, you see a connection from the urban to the natural environment. DRB Chair Deena Bell Llewellyn, a landscape architect, called the project "a wonderful example of designing for resiliency." (See the plans here.)