Has Southie gone legit? The South Boston waterfront has long been a neglected industrial district, pocked with abandoned warehouses and vacant lots. While a few factories were converted into artists' lofts over the last two decades, it remained a seedy place.

But with the arrival last December of the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (100 Northern Avenue, 617-478-3101; www.icaboston.org), a visionary glass box designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro that cantilevers over the waterfront, the neighborhood is finally emerging as a vibrant arts district, with destination restaurants, green parks and condos.

As Boston's first new art museum in decades, the I.C.A. is already a cultural cornerstone, with rotating exhibitions and a permanent collection with works by Nan Goldin, Cornelia Parker and Julian Opie. Visitors can dine at its Water Cafe (run by Wolfgang Puck Catering), and the adjacent plaza merges with the newly expanded Boston HarborWalk, designed to reconnect the harbor to the rest of the city (though immediately surrounding the museum itself are a number of vast parking lots).

On a recent Tuesday, the esplanade was filled with joggers running past patrons headed to new bakeries and restaurants, including the LTK Bar and Kitchen (225 Northern Avenue, 617-330-7430; www.ltkbarandkitchen.com), a kind of test-kitchen for the Legal Sea Food chain, which features tableside iPod stations, live music and a global menu. (Try the Yucatán fish tacos for $10.95.)

Another highlight is the Flour Bakery + Café (12 Farnsworth Street, 617-338-4333; www.flourbakery.com), a small sandwich and pastry shop that serves pain aux raisins ($2.50) for breakfast and made-to-order salads for lunch. It opened behind the just-expanded and just-reopened Boston Children's Museum (300 Congress Street, 617-426-8855; www.bostonkids.org), known for its science playgrounds and hands-on activities.

Also driving foot traffic to the area is the 1.6 million-square-foot Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (415 Summer Street, 617-954-2000; www.mccahome.com), designed by Rafael Viñoly. In the last few years, it has become a magnet for developers. Old industrial buildings in the surrounding blocks are being turned into office buildings and condos. There are even plans for a luxury hotel.

All this activity makes South Boston feel like a giant construction site at times, especially at night. In an effort to stimulate night life, the I.C.A. is sponsoring outdoor concerts in the plaza this summer with the Berklee College of Music.

To some, the change already seems amazing.

"I was born and raised in South Boston, which is a 15-minute walk from the restaurant space we're about to move in to," said Barbara Lynch, a local restaurateur who is developing a pair of Boston Wharf warehouses into condos, stores and a restaurant. "This place has been desolate for a long time, and a lot of people have been living here without restaurants or facilities."

"It's really a new frontier in Boston," Ms. Lynch added. "€œI haven't been this excited about an area in a long time."