On March 5th and 6th, hundreds of people crowded the halls of two ambitious exhibits hosted by Coral Gables Museum: The Underline: Make It Yours and Artcycle.

The Underline: Make It Yours exhibit, curated and sponsored by Friends of The Underline, is fun, interactive and informative.  The exhibit opened at the same time The Underline’s master plan design team, the renowned landscape design and urban planning James Corner Field Operations of New York City, was announced.

The Underline: Make It Yours exhibit invites visitors to imagine themselves using the future 10-mile linear park and urban trail running below Metrorail from the Miami River to Dadeland South Metrorail Station. One wall is covered with a design concept of the trail under the rails. Embedded in the image are mirrors that visitors can take “selfies” and tweet #lovetheunderline with a picture of themselves on The Underline.

There’s also a video of a virtual ride on the current M-Path.  The M-Path is the existing trail under Metrorail.  Videotaped by experienced bicyclists with a GoPro on one rider’s helmet, the video reveals the difficulty of crossing the intersections, drivers that block the crosswalks, how the trail stops and starts and more challenges along the path.

The Design Wall features the design efforts to date.  Spring 2014, the University of Miami School of Architecture dedicated a studio class of 10 students to a visioning exercise.  Each student was assigned a one-mile segment.  At the end of the semester, they showed their visions to a roomful of supporters of the future Underline.  Last Spring’s studio class  jumpstarted The Underline project’s momentum and also ushered in more design activity at UM.  Currently a team of architecture and real estate MBA students are studying and designing potential development opportunities at the Brickell and UM Metrorail stations.  Throughout the exhibit ending in late May, the design wall will be refreshed with updated work by the students.  The exhibit also features the master plan design team’s award-winning work and design philosophy.

Don’t miss the opportunity to share your creative skills!  There is an 8-foot long table with a sketched version of the current corridor.  Kids of all ages can grab crayons and try out their inner artist by drawing their own vision of the future Underline.

Make sure you tell us what you want on the Underline.  At the end of the exhibit visit, complete a survey of what you want along The Underline.  We will compile and share the results of the surveys with the master plan design team and on our website, www.theunderline.org.  Your input is important so we can make The Underline OURS.

Thanks to Coral Gables Museum for generously hosting both events on March 5th and 6th, providing the space for and assisting with installation of  the exhibit.  We hope to See You Soon On The Underline!

Share your selfie at See You On The Underline

Also, here’s a huge shout out to Lauren Robie for designing and installing The Underline: Make It Yours.