A city on the rise
From the west side of Watson Island, where water from the Main Channel laps up onto the rocky shoreline, Miami’s exploding skyline can be viewed from its most beautiful perspective. To the right, the iconic Freedom Tower punctures the sky like a syringe. The American Airlines Arena, home of the Miami Heat, glows red at dusk. By day, the sun’s reflection dances through one of the country’s largest glass-and-concrete labyrinths. By night, the illuminated causeways and skyline explain how the Magic City got its name.
After New York and Chicago, Miami has the largest number of high-rises that stretch above 500 feet. Although it’s just the 44th largest city in America (more people live in Colorado Springs than Miami city proper), its skyline is among the country’s most recognizable.
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Address 1000 MacArthur Causeway, Miami, FL 33132 | Tip If you happen to be on Watson Island during the day, visit Parrot Jungle (1111 Parrot Jungle Trail). Although the popular zoological park moved here from its original location in South Miami, it still offers a stunning variety of animals, from scarlet macaws to an albino alligator.
In a city teeming with unique buildings designed by world-class architects like Herzog & de Meuron, Morris Lapidus, and L. Murray Dixon, it’s ironic that Miami’s tallest skyscraper is the plain-looking, rectangular glass monolith of the Four Seasons Hotel. The second-tallest and most unmistakable silhouette in the skyline is the Southeast Financial Center. The 764-foot-tall chrome tower was built during Miami’s once notorious cocaine trade. With its roof resembling the cubic pyramids from the old video game Q*bert, the building was the primary hub of the tremendous influx of drug money during the 1980s.
Since the new millennium, Miami has experienced an even bigger eruption of construction, thanks in part to the drug trade’s fallout. Unlike New York and Chicago, Miami’s skyline is relatively new; the majority of buildings were raised after 2000. And new development shows no sign of slowing anytime soon. For as many skyscrapers as there are populating the urban panorama, even more cranes hover above most of them.
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