![Coral Gables 2012 194](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Coral_Gables_2012_194.jpg)
The Villages of Coral Gables are a series of themed developments in
Coral Gables,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
by city founder
George E. Merrick.
Background
Concept
Within his development of
Coral Gables, Florida
Coral Gables, officially City of Coral Gables, is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The city is located southwest of Downtown Miami. As of the 2020 U.S. census, it had a population of 49,248.
Coral Gables is known globally as home to the ...
, a
planned city
A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...
,
George E. Merrick decided that he would design small communities, or villages, within Coral Gables with different international influences. The
urban planning
Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...
initiative was called "The Village Project." While the predominant architectural style in Coral Gables in
Mediterranean Revival
Mediterranean Revival is an architectural style introduced in the United States, Canada, and certain other countries in the 19th century. It incorporated references from Spanish Renaissance, Spanish Colonial, Italian Renaissance, French Colonia ...
, some of the villages would become rare exceptions intended to add more architectural diversity to the new city it, such with as the Chinese and the Dutch South African Villages. The original plan, devised in collaboration with banker and former Ohio governor
Myers Y. Cooper, called for 14 villages at a cost of $75 million, with financing by the American Building Corporation of Cincinnati.
Completion
The Villages were developed during the foundational
real estate boom of the 1920s, and subsequently came to a halt by the end of the decade due to a cascading series of factors in its later half that included the
1926 Miami Hurricane
The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 was a large and intense tropical cyclone that devastated the Greater Miami area and caused catastrophic damage in the Bahamas and the U.S. Gulf Coast in September of the year 1926, accruing a US$100 mi ...
, the
1928 Okeechobee Hurricane, the arrival of the
Mediterranean fruit fly, and the onset of the
Great Depression with the
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange coll ...
. In all, fewer than 80 of Merrick's intended 1,000 planned village homes were completed before development slowed. The unrealized villages included: Japanese, Italian Country, Neopolitan Baroque, Mexican Hacienda, African Bazaar, Persian Canal, and Tangier villages. Another, far larger-scale unrealized project was the materialization of a Spanish Village. Merrick would later refer his planned Spanish Village as his "unfinished symphony" and was unable to continue his village project before his death due to his financial losses in the Depression.
Attempted revival
Nearly a century after its premature completion, noted Coral Gables developer
Ralph Sanchez
Rafael Agustin Sánchez (1948 – April 1, 2013), better known as Ralph Sanchez, was a prominent Cuban-American autoracing figure, developer, and businessman.
Early life
Rafael Sanchez was born in Sancti Spiritus, Cuba in 1948. He spent his e ...
and his Ponce Circle Developers firm announced the "Old Spanish Village" development project in the mid-2000s, an intended fulfillment of Merrick's original concept for a Spanish Village. Sanchez was directly inspired by Merrick's "The Village Project" of the early 1920s, which had converted nearly 10,000 acres of the Merrick family's grapefruit plantation into the original architecturally-themed village communities. Sanchez himself spent much of the preceding decade assembling the 7.2 acres of land that would form the core of the new project. The proposed $500 million, 900,000-square-foot project was located in downtown Coral Gables by Ponce Circle and blocks from
Miracle Mile Miracle Mile may refer to:
Places in the United States
* Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, a district of Los Angeles
* Miracle Mile (Coral Gables), a shopping area in Coral Gables, Florida
* Miracle Mile (Manhasset), New York, a premium sh ...
. Though large, the mostly residential complex was scaled to retain the localized charm of the Village Project and prominently implemented several elements to support the original spirit and vision of Merrick's plans. Old Spanish Village was designed in the classic
Spanish Revival
The Spanish Colonial Revival Style ( es, Arquitectura neocolonial española) is an architectural stylistic movement arising in the early 20th century based on the Spanish Colonial architecture of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
In th ...
(with some broader elements of
Mediterranean Revival
Mediterranean Revival is an architectural style introduced in the United States, Canada, and certain other countries in the 19th century. It incorporated references from Spanish Renaissance, Spanish Colonial, Italian Renaissance, French Colonia ...
) style that is prevalent in much of Coral Gables, including cobblestone walkways, open balconies, lush garden landscaping, swimming pools, and private courtyards. The architecture team composed of a high-profile collaboration between Ignacio Permuy's (son of
Jesús Permuy
Jesús A. Permuy (born 1935) is a Cuban-American architect, urban planner, human rights activist, art collector, and businessman. He is known for an extensive career of community projects and initiatives in Florida, Washington, D.C., and Latin A ...
) Coral Gables-based TERRA Architecture firm (now Permuy Architecture) and
University of Miami
The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...
professor Jorge Hernandez, who was responsible for the
urban planning
Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...
aspects.
Sanchez and the architecture team went to signifiancant lengths to ensure the project upheld Coral Gables' historic heritage, especially with respect to the original Village Project. They centrally incorporated and renovated a 1926 Merrick-era three-story art center building located at 2901 Ponce de Leon Boulevard. The renovation, costing over $1.5 million, was intended to serve as a visible and cohesive bridge between the historic elements and the new. Additionally, leading historian and author
Arva Moore Parks
Arva Moore Parks McCabe (born Arva Moore; January 19, 1939 – May 10, 2020) was a historian, author and preservationist in Miami, Florida.
Career
A University of Florida alumna (1960), she was inducted into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame (1986 ...
was hired to join the Old Spanish Village team. In the lead-up to the initial drafting of plans for Old Spanish Village in 2005, they would search extensively through newspaper archives, public documents, and photos relating to the city and the site's history as well as Merrick's plans and achievements. Describing how George Merrick inspired the project, Sanchez said: "He was an incredible visionary and did things that had never been done before," and "He is a hero in this town and this project continues his vision."
The project broke ground in November 2007 and Sanchez invested $128 million into the first phase of Old Spanish Village. This included three-story villas with rooftop terraces, private elevator access, two-car garages, and the Las Porres complex with 50 luxury units in two residential towers with private elevator access. As with the original Village Project, however, Old Spanish Village was slowed substantially by the global economy, in this case the
global recession
A global recession is recession that affects many countries around the world—that is, a period of global economic slowdown or declining economic output.
Definitions
The International Monetary Fund defines a global recession as "a decline i ...
, which marred the incomplete development into the early 2010s. Sanchez' death also impacted the competition as he was the main force driving the project conceptually and financially. The project was later renamed "Mediterranean Village" and continued to be plagued with increasing issues, until it was finally bought by the
Jose Cuervo Spirits-linked Agave Holdings Development firm. Agave demolished the completed portions of Sanchez' Old Spanish Village and used its consolidated foundation to develop a new, substantially expanded and modern high-end commercial project called "The Plaza Coral Gables", which would grow to encompass 2.25 million square feet.
Legacy
Describing the concept of the Village Project,
Moore Parks stated: “George
errickbelieved that beauty was for everyone,
..He was a visionary man who believed you didn’t have to be rich to live in a beautiful setting. He set out to bring that level of beauty to the middle class" and "
..create a place where people felt special when they were there.”
Following the suspension of the original Village Project, their architectural styles would go on to inspire and influence the housing designs of
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
from the 1930-50s with the return of
Myers Cooper and the American Building Corporation of Cincinnati. During this period, the French Normandy Village was sold to the
University of Miami
The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...
in 1935 and by the early 1940s would house five fraternities. The remaining six historical villages, most of which were completed by 1927, have been designated "Landmark Homes" by the City of Coral Gables.
The
Village of Merrick Park, a shopping mall and park built in 2002, despite its name, is unrelated to these architecturally-themed communities.
The Villages
The still existing villages are:
*Dutch South African Village: inspired by the Dutch colonist farmhouses in 17th century South Africa. Architect:
Marion Sims Wyeth
Marion Sims Wyeth (February 17, 1889 – February 4, 1982) was an American architect known for his range in styles such as Art Deco, Mediterranean Revival, and classical Georgian, French, and Colonial. He designed numerous mansions in Palm Beac ...
. Contributing properties: 6612, 6700, 6704, 6710 LeJeune Road and 6705 San Vicente Street.
*Chinese Village: inspired by Oriental architecture, all houses are linked by a common wall, creating a unique compound. Architect:
Henry Killam Murphy. 1926–1927. Contributing properties: bounded by Sansovino Avenue, Castania Avenue, Maggiore Street, Riviera Drive, and Menendez Avenue.
*French Normandy Village: inspired by the village houses in 15th century France. Architect: John and Coulton Skinner. 1926–1927. Contributing properties: bounded by LeJeune Road, Viscaya Court, Viscaya Avenue, and Alesio Avenue.
*Florida Pioneer Village/Colonial Village: in the
Georgial Colonial style and inspired by New England architecture. Architects: John Pierson, and John and Coulton Skinner. 1925–1926. Contributing properties: 4320, 4409, 4515, 4520, and 4620 Santa Maria Street. Included in 2007 in the Santa Maria Street Historic District.
*French Country Village: inspired by the country houses in 18th century France. Architects: Frank Forster (farm style homes), Edgar Albright and Phillip L. Goodwin (rustic style homes). Contributing properties: 500 block of Hardee Road.
*French City Village: inspired by the city village houses in 18th century France. Architects:
Mott B. Schmidt (Italian Renaissance houses along the north side of Hardee Road) and Philip Goodwin (rustic style houses on the south side of Hardee Road). Contributing properties: 1000 block of Hardee Road.
*Italian Village: 17 houses inspired by Italian farm houses. Architects: Alfred L. Klingbeil, John and Coulton Skinner, R. F. Ware, and
Robert Law Weed
Robert Law Weed (1897–1961) was an architect from Miami, Florida. He designed many Modernist buildings in Miami and abroad.
Some of his projects
* Florida Tropical House, built for the Homes of Tomorrow Exhibition during the 1933 World's Fair ...
. 1925–1927. Contributing properties: bounded by San Antonio Avenue, San Esteban, Segovia Street and Monserrate Street.
Gallery
File:Coral Gables Villages 2012 184.jpg, Colonial Village (John Pierson, John and Coulton Skinner, 1925–1926)
File:Coral Gables 2012 187.jpg, Colonial Village (John Pierson, John and Coulton Skinner, 1925–1926)
File:Coral Gables 2012 188.jpg, Colonial Village (John Pierson, John and Coulton Skinner, 1925–1926)
File:Coral Gables 2012 196.jpg, French Normandy Village (John and Coulton Skinner, 1926–1927)
References
{{Coral Gables, Florida
Buildings and structures in Coral Gables, Florida
History of Miami-Dade County, Florida
Tourist attractions in Miami-Dade County, Florida