Bayfront Park, Urban park in Downtown Miami, United States

Bayfront Park is a 32-acre public urban park on Biscayne Bay in Downtown Miami, begun in 1924 to Warren Henry Manning's plans and redesigned from 1980 by Isamu Noguchi. A wide grey paved promenade runs beside the water behind a row of tall palms, with lawns, clipped hedges, planting beds of spiky yellow-green plants and three silver flagpoles. Noguchi's elements include the Challenger Memorial, a 100-foot steel double helix, and the Pepper Fountain.

Bayfront Park was laid out by Warren Henry Manning and opened in March 1925 on 32 acres of Biscayne Bay shoreline. From 1980 the Japanese-American artist and landscape architect Isamu Noguchi redesigned it, adding the amphitheater, sculptural installations and the Pepper Fountain, which opened in 1990. The city's Bayfront Park Management Trust now maintains it.

Bayfront Park hosts the city's official New Year's Eve party, drawing over 70,000 visitors, and the Independence Day "America's Birthday Bash", which drew more than 60,000 in 2011. The Torch of Friendship, built in 1960 on Biscayne Boulevard at the park's northwest corner, was meant as a beacon for immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean and was re-dedicated to John F. Kennedy in 1964.

For large events such as the New Year's Eve party, which draws over 70,000 people, visitors are encouraged to take public transport, since parking can be scarce and expensive. The nearest Metrorail station is Government Center, where you can connect to the Metromover; three stops serve the park: Bayfront Park, First Street and College/Bayside.

The Challenger Memorial at the southwest corner is a 100-foot steel sculpture shaped as a double helix, made by Isamu Noguchi and dedicated on 28 January 1988, the second anniversary of the disaster. A triangular granite plaque at its base carries a poem by Michael McClure and the surnames of the seven crew members.