Cranes rise in every direction in Edgewater, the bayfront neighborhood north of downtown where you now walk, simultaneously one of Miami's oldest residential areas and one of its most rapidly transforming. In the early twentieth century, Edgewater was where Miami's prosperous residents built their homes along Biscayne Bay, drawn by the views and the bay breezes that made the subtropical climate tolerable before air conditioning. The neighborhood declined through the mid-century as commercial development and highway construction fragmented it.
For decades it was a transitional neighborhood of rooming houses, small apartment buildings, and light industry. The development pressures of the 2010s transformed it almost overnight: luxury condo towers rising along the waterfront, the arts district of Wynwood spreading south, the Pérez Art Museum drawing cultural energy from the south. Edgewater is now one of the most actively developing neighborhoods in Miami, with cranes visible in every direction.
The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, one of the most significant private art collections in the country, occupies a former industrial space here and is open to the public during the winter season. Walk the Baywalk waterfront path for a ground-level view of the development wave reshaping this part of the city.