Posh park? Not quite. Fort Lauderdale’s new Tunnel Top Plaza too stark and sterile, critics say
FORT LAUDERDALE — Tunnel Top Park, the $10.6 million project expected to bring some razzle-dazzle to a busy Las Olas corner, is opening with high expectations and a new name: Tunnel Top Plaza.
Why not call it a park? Go by and take a look.
Even the folks who built it — the state Department of Transportation — say it’s more of a plaza than a park.
The new gathering spot that took two years to build sits on the north side of Las Olas, right above the tunnel. A ribbon-cutting is planned at 1 p.m. Sunday followed by a festival celebrating the new pedestrian plaza with its terraced seating areas, landscaping and artificial turf.
For at least two decades, Fort Lauderdale leaders have talked about bringing a lush downtown park to historic Las Olas Boulevard. Now that it’s finally here, the critiques are rolling in. And so far, some residents and commissioners admit to being rather underwhelmed.
“It’s a bit stark,” Commissioner Steve Glassman said this week after stopping by to take a close look. “It needs some warmth. It’s a little bit cold, a little bit sterile. It needs to be more inviting.”
Mayor Dean Trantalis agrees.
“We were expecting to see a more lush environment,” the mayor told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “It’s a work in progress. We’re going to add artwork and landscaping. We’ll have the ribbon cutting on Sunday, but there will be improvement.”
Warren Sturman, the district commissioner for the area, says he was stunned by the small size of the plaza.
“It’s not nearly as big as I thought it would be,” he said. “That’s an awful lot of money for such a small park.”
Commissioner John Herbst said he hasn’t had a chance to stop by yet, and Vice Mayor Pamela Beasley-Pittman could not be reached for comment.
‘Cost a bloody fortune’
In the meantime, residents are taking to social media to share their somewhat snarky critiques.
“Nice putting green,” said one resident, referring to the patch of artificial turf.
“Cost a bloody fortune,” said another. “It’s pathetic. All the traffic disruption for that?” said a third.
The long-awaited transformation dovetailed with the state’s overhaul of the Henry E. Kinney Tunnel that began in September 2021, slowing the rush-hour commute.
The total cost for both the new plaza and the tunnel makeover comes to $28.4 million, the state says. Fort Lauderdale paid the tab for the $10.6 million pedestrian plaza out of its parks bond money. A cost breakdown will not be available until April, a city spokeswoman said.
The state-owned tunnel opened in 1960 to replace a bridge built so drivers could cross over the New River along Federal Highway.
Workers are replacing the tunnel’s stormwater pumps, installing LED lighting and bicycle-friendly drainage gates, resurfacing pavement, replacing damaged tiles and upgrading electrical equipment and fire lines.
The overhaul of the tunnel is expected to wrap up by spring 2024.
At Fort Lauderdale’s request, the tunnel was extended more than 117 feet to the north to make way for the pedestrian plaza, instead of 60 feet as initially planned.
‘Not what I envisioned’
Mike Weymouth, owner of the Riverside Hotel, says the plaza would have been even tinier had the city not insisted on extending the tunnel as far as possible.
“It’s not exactly what I envisioned, but I think it’s a tremendous improvement over what was there before,” he said. “Before, the headwall of the tunnel was a 5-foot-tall concrete wall next to the sidewalk on the north side. It was ugly. Just a gray concrete wall.”
Weymouth says he was hoping the designers would find another spot for the tunnel’s unsightly ventilation shaft.
“It’s still there,” he said. “But I will take what they’ve given us every day of the week and twice on Sunday.”
But Stan Eichelbaum, a downtown resident who heads the group Fort Lauderdale Alliance for Good Government, walks by the plaza every day and doesn’t like what he sees.
“I don’t think it’s a posh park,” he said. “I think it’s a postage-stamp park. I think it’s more concrete than we anticipated. It has a mini-amphitheater feel to it. And they didn’t use real grass. What we were promised was a park. A place of green, a place free from bricks and mortar, a reprieve from all the concrete. And instead we have this. Just a blink.”
All is not lost, Glassman says.
“We’ll have to see what we can do,” he said. “The park is not finished. This is like a soft opening. We’re trying out the menu.”
If you go
Fort Lauderdale has planned a ribbon-cutting for the new Tunnel Top Plaza on Sunday, Dec. 10, at 1 p.m. A community festival will follow from 1:30 to 5 p.m. with live music, live art, food, games, a kids zone and fashion show at Las Olas Boulevard and Southeast Sixth Avenue. The movie “Home Alone” will be shown from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan