Communities across the U.S. are significantly lowering healthcare costs, improving productivity, fostering economic development, and enjoying a higher quality of life through the implementation of Blue Zones Projects. Our team have served over the years as project managers and built environment experts to the Blue Zones National Team supporting communities across the US. The process is designed to determine how to make these communiites healthier places to live, work, grow up, and grow old.

Through the Blue Zones Ignite process, Urbe Studio supported a built environment assessment in the City of Miami Beach to identify needs and opportunities for improving community well-being through strategic changes in land use, mobility, and the public realm. The effort aimed to understand how the city’s physical environment contributes to or hinders healthy living, especially for underserved residents, older adults, and children.

The assessment focused on evaluating access to active transportation infrastructure, transit access, green infrastructure, and the qualitative experience along key corridors and within neighborhoods. A multidisciplinary team conducted fieldwork, stakeholder interviews, and mapping analysis to assess opportunities and find alignment between Blue Zones core principles and the City’s long-term community goals. Recommendations were rooted in the Blue Zones Life Radius model—focusing on the 20-mile zone where people live most of their lives—and sought to support small-scale, achievable policy and design interventions with transformative potential for increased livability and community wellbeing.

In addition to identifying challenges related to housing affordability, heat mitigation, and access, the assessment emphasized solutions such as expanding shade coverage, implementing traffic calming & safety countermeasures for safer walking and biking conditions, reprogramming underutilized spaces for active use, and improving pedestrian connections across the city. Special attention was placed on neighborhoods with limited access to amenities and mobility choices.

The final deliverables helped build momentum among city leaders and residents for future wellness transformation strategies, setting a foundation for long-term planning efforts rooted in livability, inclusivity, and community-driven design.

For more information go here: https://www.bluezones.com/ignite-miami-beach/