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DC Alexander Park serves as a civic porch and resilient community infrastructure, transforming a former parking lot into an elevated public living room for both residents and visitors. Perched at the threshold between city and sea, the park functions as a double-decker porch, offering elevated views, immersive public space, and universal access to the dynamic coastal edge of Fort Lauderdale Beach.
As an extreme coastal beach environment, the park design had to address flooding, sea level rise, and constant salt spray, requiring the integration of green infrastructure, ecological restoration, and structural resilience. The result is a civic asset that simultaneously protects the shoreline, enhances public space, and reimagines infrastructure as community art.
The park’s ramping dune and cantilevered overlook create a dramatic, accessible platform for the public to gather, experience the beach from above, and connect with the natural rhythms of the shoreline. This elevated porch serves both as a resilient buffer against storm surge and as an iconic public space, blurring the lines between infrastructure, landscape, and architecture.
The park “botanizes” the former asphalt surface, restoring a tropical maritime hardwood hammock and coastal dune system. These ecosystems perform critical functions, from absorbing stormwater and filtering salt spray to creating habitat for native flora and fauna. The park’s re-established hammock and root dunes act as a natural sponge, mitigating flooding while providing shaded pathways and natural play areas.
The coastal plaza to the north extends this public realm, functioning as a shared street and shaded social hub. Dappled light filters through the shade hammock, created by native species such as Green Buttonwood, Gumbo Limbo, and Seagrape, reinforcing the park’s ecological and cultural identity.
DC Alexander Park is more than a park — it is a transformational model of how public spaces can simultaneously serve as climate infrastructure, community gathering space, and living public art. In a city where hardened infrastructure like seawalls and bulkheads often dominate the coastal edge, DC Alexander Park offers a new vision: one where design not only protects but also inspires, educates, and invites the public into dialogue with the evolving shoreline.
This marriage of resilience, beauty, and accessibility makes DC Alexander Park an enduring community icon, representing the power of design to shape a more resilient, inclusive, and inspiring future for Fort Lauderdale and its vulnerable coast. Photos by Brooks + Scarpa
More Info: www.brooksscarpa.com/dc-alexander-park
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