Coral Gables

At the turn of the 20th Century, Florida remained one the last true untouched frontiers of the United States. It existed as a primeval paradise removed from civilization where idealistic individuals set out to establish utopian communities and real estate development with no other context than the sea and the tropical brush.

Coral Gables became the vision of George Merrick, who along with his uncle, Denman Fink and the landscape architect Frank Button, created a layout based on the principles of the City Beautiful Movement. Along with
Phineas Paist they designed landmarks such as the Venetian Pool (1925), the De Soto Fountain (1925), the Douglas Entrance (1924), the City Hall (1928), and the Police and Fire Station (1939). George Merrick published his first book, Song of the Wind on a Southern Shore in 1920. Shortly afterwards he launched Coral Gables. He would never realize his dream of devoting his life to written poetry, instead Coral Gables would become his legacy, his “poetry in stone.”

Jose A. Gelabert-Navia is a Professor and former Dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Miami. A graduate of Cornell University, Jose has been part of the Faculty since 1981. His primary teachingfocus has been in the areas of Architectural Design and History of Colonialism and Globalization in Architecture. He was the founder of the School’s Rome Program and as part of it, he teaches a course in Italian Culture every Spring. Prof. Gelabert-Navia has been the author of numerous articles and has also been a practicing architect, directing the Miami office of Perkins + Will. He has lectured in Europe and Latin America, most recently on the Sustainable Hospital in Brasilia and in Santiago, Chile this year.