On March 30, the entire student body, plus faculty and staff, of UMSoA came together for an awareness and beautification project at three Metrorail stations: University, Coconut Grove and Brickell.

“The Underline began at UMSoA, in a studio run by professor Rocco Ceo. When we were trying to decide how the School should give back to the community this year, it was a perfect fit,” said Dean Rodolphe el-Khoury. “We had already been working with Meg Daly, and the projects were made infinitely easier thanks to her assistance. I’d like to thank professor Steve Fett for his efforts in orchestrating the event and all of the faculty, staff and students who devoted a day to it.”

“The value of U-Serve is that it is grass roots, community-based and visceral,” said Meg Daly, President of the Friends of the Underline. “People got to see what could be along The Underline, from a Metrorail beach to performance art demonstrations, before we have put a shovel in the ground to start building.”

Throughout the day, professor Jaime Correa and students documented site activations and transit user experiences via Periscope (@periscopeco) reporting on “a day in the life of” views and experiences within Metrorail cars, on station platforms and ground level spaces, U-Serve sites and areas within a 5-minute walk of future Underline stations.

Life’s a (Transitory) Beach created a pop-up beach at the University Metrorail station. Students staged a temporary urban space using umbrellas, colorful pots with plants and beach blankets. The space was highlighted by a number of Adirondack chairs built by UMSoA students on the day of the event. Student Tyler Nussbaum and furniture professor Austin Matheson, along with Wood Shop manager Jay Inzko, were integral to that effort. Students and faculty also did several “flash mobs,” waving colorful signs and drawing the attention of passersby to the Underline.

At the Coconut Grove Metrorail station, the Slow Ride team, led by professors Adib Cure and Carie Penabad, created a multi-sensory installation to brighten and freshen the Palm Court. They glued dozens of coconut-scented pine tree-shaped air fresheners to sticks and bases, all orange, to create a whimsical micro-scaled forest at the station. Under the guidance of UMSoA faculty members Christina Canton, Sonia Chao and Jorge Trelles, students performed a variety of dances and decorated the sidewalks with chalked messages that promoted U-Serve and the Underline. At the end of the day, everyone was rewarded with aBBQ and performance by Afrobeta in the UMSoA Courtyard.

Steve Fett, assistant director of the Center for Urban and Community Design, oversaw the coordination of U-Serve. He was very happy with the result. “U Serve proved to be an exciting day. Our students were able to participate in a variety of unique experiences,” he said. “These included building chairs and staging a temporary public space, working on an artistic installation that provided a spark of life and touch of beauty to an otherwise forgotten place, performing dance routines and planting mahogany seeds, and creating live streams of all of it, posted on Periscope. These valuable experiences showed our students that tremendous efforts are being made everyday to advocate for the importance of great public spaces. They were able to get a brief insight to this reality and contribute in a memorable, meaningful way.”

U-Serve began in 2015 as an effort for UMSoA to give back to the community. The inaugural U-Serve involved a smartphone-driven architectural inventory of East Little Havana, with about 800 labor hours donated to the City of Miami by the School and more than 400 properties inventoried. All design studio classes are suspended for the day, and all faculty, students and staff participate in this unique day of service. U-Serve was sponsored by the Friends of the Underline, Grass River Properties, NP International and MK Real Estate Group.