Resilience - University of Miami School of Architecture

environmental history
As is typical of barrier islands, Virginia Key is a naturally dynamic enty whose
form and character fluctuates over me. Anthropogenic changes to the Biscayne
Bay ecosystem have supplanted hurricanes and natural dal fluctua-
ons as the major cause of landscape change. Peter Harlem’s 1979 analysis
of historical aerial photography provides a comprehensive review of changes
to the structure of Biscayne Bay which parallel the urbanizaon of the region
over the 20th century. The Miami mainland consists of a limestone ridge which
separates the Everglades from the Bay and the Atlanc Ocean. Key Biscayne
forms the southernmost part of a second limestone ridge underlying the chain
of sandy barrier islands which protect the mainland coast (Harlem 16).
Like other islands, Virginia Key was once covered predominantly with Mangrove
which anchored sediment deposited by fluctuang current and dal ac-
vity (Harlem 26). In the 1930’s dredging and wall construcon began to alter
current flow in the Bay. Sediment began to accrete to the north of the island
providing area for expansion of the mangrove swamp. By the 1950’s the island
had expanded to the north by almost a half mile. The eastern third of this
new area was dredged to provide fill for the sewage treatment plant which
was constructed throughout the mid 1950’s. The dredged area created a sink
for sand eroding off Virginia Key Beach to the south. By the mid 1970’s jees
had been constructed to slow erosion of Virginia Key beach. The northern p
of the Key was surrounded by levees in the mid 1960’s and the area was used
as a sanitary landfill (figures 4,5)(Harlem 94). The landfill area is now an EPA
superfund site. The northwestern poron of the island was altered by the
construcon of the Marine Stadium lagoon. The southern poron of the island
was cleared for the Seaquarium, RSMAS campus, and federal facilies by the
end of the 1950’s (figure 6).
5. Virginia Key Aerials, Harlem
4. Biscayne Bay in green, frame on
study area, adapted from Harlem
8