The last Friday of the month in Miami is a notable date for cyclists, as it marks the monthly Critical Mass bike ride around the city. To coincide with this news, DawnTown is pleased to announce the winners of the 2014 Alternative Mobilities design competition sponsored by the Miami Downtown Development Authority (DDA). The Miami DDA Master plan calls for the promotion of regional connectivity and creative mobility solutions. This inspired us to develop a program based upon the alternative strategies people can take to moving around their downtown without having to rely on a single automobile. Using examples such as bicycle storage and sharing, car sharing, and ride sharing, we asked designers to create a nexus of where these strategies could meet and call home. This central hub would be located in a dense part of downtown’s Central Business District and would not replace the existing options we have; On the contrary, the proposal would bolster Miami’s transportation network.

In first place is Studio GeKo,Bastian Gerner, Pola Rebecca Koch, of Arhus, Denmark with their proposal entitled The Catalyst. Their competition excerpt reads “The location of the site in the most dense area of the existing Miami Transportation Network holds the huge potential of creating alternative transportation hub with this being a catalyst for healthier, safer and more sustainable public life. The architecture of the new hub satisfies the functional needs while providing the users with a rich mobility linked program and high quality urban spaces.”

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Second place goes to a student team from Kent State University in Cleveland, Ohio, Jeff Jasinski and Matt Dureiko. Naming their project after their team name, Mobile Miami, they write, “Mobile Miami stresses the importance of intermodal transportation as a growing urban trend in the city. The concept projects real-time digital information to communicate the availability of all modes of on-site transportation. This allows for absolute freedom of choice on how to better connect with Miami.”

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Finally, third place belongs to New York City based designer, Michael Barker and his entry MoPAD. In his text, Barker gives the following description “The traditional transit center is one of hard infrastructure, designed simply to negotiate the flows of people and goods. The future transit hub will be multi-modal, flexible, and networked. In Miami, this hub will also be open to the vibrant and diverse street life of the city. MoPAD is about more than just movement, it is about culture and festivity. MoPAD is a prototype, a “kit-of-parts” that can be utilized throughout the city to promote networked, community-based, and healthy modes of transportation.”

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> via dawntown.org