Construction begins at Miami Circle site

The Miami Herald reports: At the mouth of the Miami River, an instant city of high-rise condos popped up around the 2,000-year-old Miami Circle in far less time than it took the state of Florida to devise a plan for public access to the ancient Native American site.

Now, 11 years after taxpayers ponied up $27 million to save the archaeological relic from getting buried under a condo slab, earthmovers are finally at work transforming the 2.2-acre parcel into the city's newest -- and perhaps most resonant -- waterfront park.

By late November or early December, planners say, residents and visitors should gain unfettered access to the site via a new, palm-shaded riverwalk that connects to a year-old public baywalk behind the Icon Brickell condo complex next door.

For an urban park, the roughly $1 million plan is simple and frugal: Aside from the riverwalk, it includes some landscaping, lighting and signage. A drop-off loop will provide auto access from Brickell Avenue.

The ancient circle itself will for the foreseeable future remain buried for protection, its circumference delineated by paving stones. A new "ceremonial'' circle will occupy the point where the river meets Biscayne Bay, a location archaeologists believe held special significance for the Tequesta tribe, Miami's original developers.

"This will be a very useful park,'' said Robert McCammon, director of the HistoryMiami museum, which will manage the circle site and contributed $100,000 toward the park project, which was funded mostly with state money. "Talk about a great place to sit in the afternoon. I think people will be surprised how nice it is.''

The 38-foot-wide, ground-level circle consists of carvings in soft limestone that archaeologists believe were postholes for a round structure built by the Tequesta. They believe the site -- also the place where the pioneering Brickell family had its trading post -- was a portion of a larger Tequesta village that occupied both banks of the river.

The archaeological remnant was discovered in 1998, when a 1950s apartment building on the site was demolished to make way for a high-rise condo. A public outcry led county and state officials to purchase the site the following year.