Welcome to the Miami Design District

Yesterday I got out early, so I had a chance to go home via the Miami Design District, just north of Downtown Miami. This area, abandoned and dilapidated until just a few years ago, is fast becoming a trendy spot, attracting lots of local artists. Art is scattered around the district and I'll be showing you some of the pieces in the following days.

First up is this large mural, which I can see every day as I drive to work from Miami Beach. If you look closely on the left side, you'll see some scaffolding. Up until early this week, there was another long mural on that side of the building, facing the expressway, that read "Miami Design District" and featured the eye logo you see above. This week, however, they started to tear down that face of the building, and that mural does not exist anymore. I hope that this one does not suffer the same fate; I'd hate to think that instead of sharing a great shot of the city with you, I was actually chronicling something to show what once stood there.

The area is quite busy lately, as new developments are going up like anthills, so it now remains to see how long can the artistic spirit of the district can survive before being engulfed by commercialism and banality. Miami is not the most artist-friendly city there is, though that is changing for the better, and areas like the Design District present an anomalous snapshot of an underground river of culture that thrives despite the superficiality that most people conjure to mind when they think of Miami.