Everything at Bayshore Park Answers to the Lake

The water came first when Bayshore Park was built on the old Par 3 golf course at 2530 Pine Tree Drive. Nearly everything residents have used there since the September 2025 opening follows from that decision: the hills, the lawns, the sunset view, the spot where the tennis courts went, and the 22-foot sculpture on Fairgreen Hill.

The park turned one on September 28. The city held its grand opening celebration on a Sunday in 2025 with live music and wellness programming, and WSVN covered the crowd that turned out. A year later, the clearest way to read the park is as a drainage system that people walk around.

Eighty-five acres draining into nineteen

The park covers 19.4 acres. According to a Guardian photo essay published April 2, 2026, the central lake takes rainwater from an 85-acre watershed. That means the land draining into the park is more than four times the size of the park.

The Guardian reports that the runoff keeps nearby streets clear and keeps polluted water out of Biscayne Bay, which has suffered fish kills from runoff. Pumps under the docks keep the lake healthy, and the lake is stocked with mosquito-eating fish. The city's project page describes the same lake as stormwater retention. That design works alongside pervious pavement, motion-sensor walkway lighting, and new water and sewer lines run under the park.

The half-mile loop is the park's main walking route, and it is also the levee holding the lake in. The two can't be separated.

The hills and the sunset came out of the lake bed

Savino & Miller Design Studio, a local landscape architecture firm, designed the park. Its principals were also part of the neighborhood group that pushed to have the golf course cleaned up and turned into a natural park. The firm built the park's hills from soil dredged off the lake bottom. Digging the basin produced the high ground.

That high ground does a second job. The Guardian reports that the grass fields help hold rainwater and the hills give an open view of the sunset over water. Adriana Savino, a principal at the firm, told the paper, "Miami Beach faces east, so there was no place where you can really enjoy a sunset in Miami."

The plants follow the same logic. The designers chose species that can survive being underwater, including bald cypress, sago palms and leather ferns. The century-old banyan in the lake had been fenced off for years to protect its roots. It now has an elevated metal boardwalk around it, and Barry Miller told the Guardian, "We call it the cathedral."

The newest landmark stands on one of those hills. BirdHouse, by Michele Oka Doner, was unveiled May 29, 2026. It is 22 feet tall and six feet in diameter, made of concrete, mica and coquina, and it sits on Fairgreen Hill. The city says Oka Doner, a Miami Beach native, grew up across the street from the park. As a child she found an abandoned birdhouse in a coconut palm there, and that image shaped the piece. Her proposal won out over 67 applicants, a field the city cut to three semifinalists when it announced the commission in 2025. That announcement described a 20-foot sculpture. The installed work is two feet taller.

Where the louder uses went

Neighbors asked for tennis courts in a park meant mostly for quiet use. The Guardian reports that the designers fit six courts next to a public works building on the south side of the park so the noise stays out of the quieter areas. Solar panels on the roof power the tennis center building. "You almost don't know they're there," Savino said.

Miami Beach Tennis Center, or MBTC, runs the courts. The city's tennis page lists Bayshore as bookable through the MBTC app, at $3 for residents and $10 for nonresidents. Further down, the same FAQ says:

Select courts (e.g., Normandy, Bayshore, Polo) are always free and not bookable online. Usage logs are maintained to ensure fair play and accommodate Sabbath-observant residents.

The page doesn't settle which rule applies at Bayshore today, so MBTC is the place to confirm before showing up. The city lists peak hours as 7 to 11 a.m. and 4 to 8 p.m. daily, and private lessons start at $85 to $100. The city's September parks newsletter lists MBTC junior classes for ages 5 to 10 at Bayshore with registration open, though it gives no schedule.

Children's water play was shaped by the lake too. Savino & Miller skipped a splash pad and built a linear water feature that connects to the lake and rises and falls with the lake's depth. Children still jump in on hot days. The Guardian reports that the butterfly garden draws monarch, yellow sulfur and atala butterflies.

The basics:

• Hours: sunrise to sunset, seven days a week, per the city's park directory.
• Dog park: free and off-leash, with double-fenced runs, benches, fountains and waste stations, as the city describes its Bark Parks.
• This month: Miami Beach Fit Camp lists a group strength class at Bayshore Park on Tuesday, October 20, at 9 a.m. The organizer says its South Beach classes are free during October.

The unfinished list is mostly about water and access

On its Bayshore Park project page, the city calls the park complete and keeps a short status list of follow-up items. As of the July 7, 2026 update, it read:

1. Lake ozone and circulation system: completed
2. Landscaping: estimated to finish by the end of April 2026
3. Drainage improvements: under review
4. ADA parking adjustments: waiting to be submitted for permits
5. Walkway to the playground: waiting on design and permit submittal

The lake's own equipment is the only item marked completed. The rest covers drainage, the paths people use to get in and around, and landscaping, which had an April target the page never marked as met. No newer update has been posted since July.

Getting in got attention that same month. A city notice dated July 7 announced a new sidewalk and crosswalk at 24th Street and Prairie Avenue "to provide safer access into Bayshore Park." Work was scheduled to start the week of July 20 and take about two weeks, with the park open throughout. The notice gives the schedule, and no later city update confirms the work was finished.

Seven months of work on the streets that lead in

The next round reaches past the park's edges. The city's Bayshore Traffic Calming project is expected to start construction in October 2026 and take about seven months. If that holds, work would run until roughly May 2027. The city says the goal is to cut speeding and cut-through traffic in Central Bayshore South, using speed tables and cushions, traffic circles and intersection changes on these segments:

• Prairie Avenue, Dade Boulevard to West 37th Street
• North Meridian Avenue, Dade Boulevard to West 28th Street
• West 28th Street, Meridian Avenue to Sheridan Avenue
• Chase Avenue, Alton Road to West 40th Street
• Royal Palm Avenue, West 28th Street to West 42nd Street
• Sheridan Avenue, West 28th Street to West 40th Street

Prairie Avenue matters most for the park. It's on the list, and its 24th Street crossing is the one the city scheduled for new park-access work this summer. During construction, the city says property access and pedestrian access will be kept open at all times. Temporary closures, detours and enforced parking restrictions are possible. A virtual pre-construction meeting was held September 15. Its recap links to the recording and presentation but doesn't name a park access route.

A year in, the main project is done and running: 65.62 acre-feet of storage, with the walking path doubling as the levee. Still on the list: the drainage review, the ADA parking, the playground walkway, landscaping with no confirmed finish, and seven months of street work.

Bayshore Park shows what happens when infrastructure is the first program on a site and every visible amenity is arranged around it. That sequence decides schedules and budgets on commercial projects too. At The Paragon Team, we plan site drainage, access and tenant needs as one decision from day one. If you have a site where that order matters, start the conversation.