Coral Gables: Urban Solutions 01: — EATING FLORIDA

Introduction

            If anyone out there has been reading my Eating Florida segments, you have noted, up to this point, their environmental orientation. Since the topic is human agency and non-sustainable consumption of scarce land and water resources, the focus now shifts to urban planning and more sustainable cities as solutions to the problem. I’ll start with two locations in the Miami-Dade metro area and work my way around the State in a fashion that may seem haphazard but has an underlying logic (that may be apparent only to my twisted mind).

Coral Gables

            Every once in a great while, blogs like this one have an authentic champion, a person of character who takes the high road and refuses to wallow in the slime with the con men, greed-obsessed developers, and bend-over politicians. Our luck is that we had to wade through the likes of Hamilton Disston, Henry Flagler, Ed Ball, and Barron Gift Collier Senior to get to George Merrick. Let’s be clear about one thing. Merrick was a south Florida land developer, not an angel. He was a real person with a full set of human weaknesses. But he was possessed of such great personal integrity that he never stooped to raping the land or buyers. Not even when the Florida real estate market blew up in his face and he tossed the dice one more time as he stared into the hollow eyes of bankruptcy and lost everything.

The story started in 1898, when Dr. Solomon Merrick, a Congregational minister and a refugee from frigid Massachusetts winters, moved about as far south as he could. For the relatively modest sum of eleven hundred dollars he purchased a 160-acre tract of land just south of the mouth of the Miami River on Biscayne Bay and the newly minted city of Miami. The Reverend Dr. Merrick and his twelve-year old son, George, moved into a log-cabin that was already on the property. They immediately planted what had been fertile pine flatlands with a variety of fruits and vegetables to sell in nearby Miami. It wasn’t too long before the rest of the Merrick clan moved south to join them. They immediately began enlarging the log cabin by adding a frame structure and dressing the exterior in a local oolitic (fossil bearing) limestone quarried from a nearby site on their property. When it was completed in 1906 the house was christened, Coral Gables, after the local stone and its typically New England roof line. As Dr. Merrick’s crops thrived, he poured the profits into land, eventually acquiring more than 1,600 acres. Over the years George took over management of the property, almost doubling the size of the farm to 3,000 acres, which he then, in the throes of development fever, increased to over 10,000 acres.

George was the family visionary. He dreamed of creating on the farm a community unlike any other on earth. A City Beautiful. A city of quality that complimented and enhanced the natural environment not destroyed it. Alas, the fates were not destined to smile on poor George for long. His misfortune was becoming a Florida land developer in the awful boom and bust days of the early 1920s. When consummate liars, con artists, and conscienceless scoundrels constituted the far greater majority of Miami real estate “professionals.” Those were times when south Florida property went unsurveyed even though it may have been sold two or three times in a single day and as many as twenty or more times a week. Always escalating in price, of course. As if that kind of spiral would simply continue ad infinitum. Bubble, bubble, won’t you double? And who were the buyers? Typically they were untrained land speculators who had only the vaguest idea of where the land was located or whether it was high and dry or under four feet of water six months of the year. No exaggeration whatsoever. Today, you can’t imagine what a wild and frenzied situation it was unless you read the literature.

             In order for you, Gentle Readers, to understand the almost unimaginable chaos that constituted the south Florida real estate market of the time, it may be instructive to take a brief look at the life of one of the most successful speculators of that day, Richard J. Bolles. Among the first classic Swamp Swindlers, Bolles was the prototypical huckster and con artist. He started his financial career as a genuine investment genius, gaining a seat on the New York Stock Exchange at the unheard of age of twenty-three, where he promptly wheeled and dealed his way to a serious fortune. He then packed his bags and headed west. Where he added to his already impressive reputation by making additional millions. He bought a huge tract of mountainous land in Oregon and immediately subdivided it into 14,000 “farm-ranch” sites. Which sold like hot cakes sight unseen to ignorant but land-hungry Easterners, flatlanders all who possessed no real-world understanding of the phrase, mountainous and remote.

            Then, as now, many people thought that living out West would be filled with the romance of breathtakingly beautiful mountain vistas, blue skies, fresh air and easy living. Unfortunately, that landscape existed only in their imaginations. So, they waved their hard-earned cash in the air, bought Bolles’s properties site unseen, packed up, and headed west to the Land of Plenty. Wait until their first winter with 16 feet of snow on the ground and more on the way. And no means of getting to a town that was 30 brutal miles removed. Yeah. And then watch them beat feet back home, tails tucked under their whipped asses. With bitter curses against Bolles on their lips but few self recriminations about their own monumental stupidity. After all, the only way a con works is if a sucker falls for it.

When Bolles arrived in southern Florida in 1908, pumped fat with millions of additional dollars grifted from the pockets of gullible Easterners, the real estate market, supposedly regulated by State agencies (intentionally blind, deaf, and dumb and all too often in bed with the very people they were supposed to regulate), was ripe for exploitation. In the mad rush to make instant fortunes, a situation created by men like Hamilton Disston and Henry Flagler, State agencies simply made no attempt to organize or oversee or regulate the highly volatile real estate market. After all, the State of Florida profited from ever increasing land sales. So the regulators conveniently slipped into what amounted to a state of permanent catatonia. They were simply indifferent to fraud. No matter how blatant or how outrageous. Or were culpable by winking at the illegalities with both hands eagerly held out for their cash rewards.

As an aside, as late as 1969 the Florida Land Sales Board, supposedly the State agency responsible for regulating real estate companies, allowed developers to describe, in nationally published advertisements, seasonal flooding on land in the Big Cypress and the Everglades as “ponding.” Right. Ponding. Water that could be as much as eight feet deep or more. A canoe, anyone?

Bolles immediately recognized the situation for the potential bonanza it was. Without a second’s hesitation he dived in head first, buying 500,000 acres of Everglades land from the State Internal Improvement Fund for $1 million. He began by subdividing 180,000 acres, or 281 square miles, in Dade and Palm Beach Counties into 12,000 farms, the greater majority of which were ten acres in size. Only two of those 12,000 parcels contained as much as 640 acres. Remember, those parcels were supposed to be working farms, not building lots. Contracts were placed on the market and executed without the land ever being surveyed. Typically, buyers didn’t know the location, size, or condition of the land they bought. Indeed, ignorance was true bliss.

By 1911, fifty real estate agencies in Chicago alone were unloading Bolles’s ten-acre “farms” to the unsuspecting and gullible idiots who would frequently turn around that very same day and re-sell them to even less sophisticated and more foolish buyers at a nice profit. It started as a feeding frenzy and quickly escalated into a scandal of national proportions. In that classic Florida boom and bust real estate market, it proved difficult to count the ways people were flimflammed. Scams, ranging from ordinary to creative, ruled the day.

            Criminal fraud charges finally were brought against Bolles in 1913 by various states Attorneys General. It was a belated but well-intentioned effort to protect their citizens from the worst of his land swindles. Those original indictments were dismissed on legal technicalities and Bolles had the uncommon good sense to die (of natural causes) before additional criminal charges without defect could be brought against him. But his success firmly established the Florida genre that Hamilton Disston only hinted at. The land developer as con man supreme and environmental rapist extraordinaire. Unfortunately, it was those con artists and easy virtue salesmen who in the days of regulation by osmosis constituted by far the greater majority of those involved in south Florida real estate deals.

Although George Merrick became a real estate developer about ten years later, he was cut from a very different cloth than those of the Bolles ilk. In certain non-debatable ways Merrick represented the very best tradition in American planning, architecture, and urban development. Today, in the eyes of many urban design professionals, his adamant refusal to maximize profits by filling his development with the same tawdry junk that characterized Miami residential subdivisions of the day qualifies him as a genuine hero. Merrick’s sole focus was on building a self-contained world where everything was beautiful and enjoyable. A south Florida version of classical Mediterranean culture. Maximizing profits by building cheap houses was never part of his vision or plan. Which, considering the times and the wide open opportunity to loot and pillage the landscape and exploit the endless parade of suckers, constituted nearly unbelievable restraint and demonstrated enormous strength of character.

Unlike most of his greed-driven real estate contemporaries, George started with the image of the community he wanted to build in his mind. He then transferred that vision onto paper in the form of a Master Development Plan, a technique that was highly unusual for that day. His physical plan and architectural code included everything from street dimensions and building styles to exterior paint colors. George started with a framework of tightly gridded streets that contained a large free-form English garden, whose shape was not unlike that of any number of contemporary golf courses. Although he referred to the architectural inspiration of his first buildings as “Spanish,” the term Mediterranean Revival is actually the correct description.

 George’s dream was to create what he termed a “balanced” community in Coral Gables, not just a haven for the idle rich. People from every walk of life and income bracket were to be part of the new community. Even the most modest homes were completely thought out and as charmingly executed as the grandest. Oh yes, George was a first-class dreamer.

Merrick was also an Olympic-class man of action. Once he settled on the Mediterranean Revival theme, he immediately dispatched agents to Cuba to buy roof tiles from villages across the island to give his buildings an authentically weathered Iberian/Hispanic appearance. In the right south Florida urban setting, the Mediterranean tradition is both appropriate and versatile. In the wrong setting and the wrong hands it can be downright ugly and tasteless. Witness its use in many insipid contemporary subdivisions throughout the Southeast and Midwest, not to mention nasty places like Cape Coral. Luckily, in Coral Gables, the style took the high road established by Merrick and is even today is illustrated by its many timeless architectural gems.

• The Douglas Entrance city gate, known as La Puerta del Sol, with its 40-foot curved archway across Douglas Road. But while you’re in the vicinity don’t forget to check out the gracious Granada Street Entrance.
• The Colonnade Building, the most dominant structure on the Miracle Mile, Coral Gables’ main shopping area, was built in 1925 as the headquarters of the Merrick Corporation. It’s a wonderful building with a large central rotunda, arcades, a central fountain and a lavishly ornamented Baroque front entrance; now home to the Florida National Bank and connected to the Omni Colonnade Hotel, which I can tell you from personal experience is a very pleasant place to stay.
• The original Seville Hotel, at 162 Alcazar Avenue, is today the intimate and ever so delightful Hotel Place St. Michel, with its 28 exquisitely furnished, high-ceiling rooms, which are surprisingly affordable; the Hotel is a must-do if you’re in the area and are in need of elegant accommodations.
• Don’t forget the ever-lovely Biltmore Hotel whose 315 foot tower was inspired by the Giralda Bell Tower of the famous Cathedral in Seville, Spain. The hotel grounds originally featured canals complete with gondolas and extensive gardens.
• Right across the street from the Biltmore Hotel is the absolutely marvelous Congregational Church, an architectural jewel with its prominent and stunning Baroque belfry, barrel tile roofs and rectangular masonry. Located at 3010 DeSoto Boulevard, inside await other treasures and visual delights: 16^th Century furnishings, chandeliers and beautifully carved pews.
• DeSoto Plaza and Fountain, Coral Gables’ loveliest traffic circle, was designed by Denman Fink in the early 1920s. It features a columnar fountain surrounded by a footed basin collecting the water flowing from four sculpted faces.
• How could anyone visit Coral Gables and not take in the beauty of the incomparable Venetian Pool, arguably the loveliest swimming facility in America, if not the world. The Pool, designed by Denman Fink, is artfully concealed behind pastel tinted, stucco walls and features a free-form lagoon, fed by underground artesian springs. If you can believe it, the Pool’s 80,000 gallons were formerly drained and refilled each evening to ensure a cool, refreshing swim. You’ll love the coral caves, Venetian lampposts, fountains and waterfalls, the Mediterranean village atmosphere and palm trees. In a word: incredible.

Coral Gables’ public buildings, commercial structures, houses, and hotels built in the Mediterranean Revival style are today as fresh and innovative interpretations of the architectural repertoire of the Mediterranean as they were nearly 80 years ago. The secret is they were freely but authentically adapted to meet the needs of the American way of life and were never mere surface decoration or frills that could be dispensed with at will as economic measures dictated.

To convert his dream into urban reality, Merrick knew he needed men with vision and ability who thought along the same lines. So he went out and lured them into the fold. Phineas Paist, architect, Frank Button, landscape architect, and Denman Fink, the artist who converted a useless, empty quarry (where the stone for the Merrick family house had been dug decades previously) into a natural lagoon arranged in a spectacularly beautiful Venetian setting. Even though he had never traveled outside the U.S., George was not only a stickler for authentic details of the Mediterranean-type design but also for all the other architectural styles he incorporated into “village” clusters and individual buildings.

• Florida Cracker
• French, including Normandy, French City, and French Country village styles
• Italian
• American Colonial
• Dutch South African
• Thai-Chinese

That obsession for authenticity cost Merrick a real bundle, $10 million alone for the Biltmore Hotel and a $3 million annual budget for advertising his development. Never one to be blinded by the bright lights and glitz of materialism or to ignore legitimate culture, Merrick donated 160 acres and $5 million for the establishment of the University of Miami. Of whose excellent School of Architecture I count myself an admirer.

It was the joke of Miami developers that Merrick never saw a tree he didn’t like. He planted thousands of trees and shrubs along the drainage ditches he converted into canals at roadside’s edge, in boulevard medians, around public buildings, and in the numerous parks. Everywhere in Coral Gables it turned out. And his brand of landscape “madness” worked. Almost instantly after opening his land office Merrick sold $150 million in lots. For the overwhelming majority of real estate developers that was the moment to pack the bags, take the money and run like hell. Not George. He immediately turned around and re-invested $100 million in his development, digging 40 miles of canals in which gondolas languidly played, planting more trees, and building a block of apartments that lined the grand entrance off the Tamiami Trail just west of the Miami city limits. And to prove his initial success wasn’t a fluke, in 1924, a relatively flat year for southern Florida real estate sales, George sold more than $12 million in lots. He was right after all, quality pays huge dividends.

Today’s visitors to Coral Gables will find the city filled with many delightful and distinctive places. One you shouldn’t miss is Country Club Prado, a real Latin-style thoroughfare with Mediterranean-inspired buildings featuring those above-mentioned red tile roofs imported from Cuba, adjacent residential neighborhoods of white stucco houses with elegant gardens and gracious patios, borders of towering palms and a delightful park running down the median planted with tropical ornamentals and classical statuary. All built 40 years before the principal migration of Cubans in the 1960s. As proved by Country Club Prado, Merrick’s insistence on high quality construction in Coral Gables ensured that his 1920s-era buildings are about the only ones in Miami that continue to improve with age and exude life and vitality.

On September 18 and 19, 1926, the Miami metropolitan area was subjected to a terrible test. A hurricane featuring hellaciously powerful winds tore across Miami Beach and Miami and roared inland, killing almost 400 people, causing over $76 million in property damage, and flattening the downtown area. After the onslaught, the cities of Miami and Miami Beach looked like war zones, with many buildings suffering such severe structural damage they had to be demolished. Cheaply constructed homes on the mainland were particularly hard hit. Several new subdivisions were completely wiped out, leaving only bare foundation slabs littered with debris. But Coral Gables passed that test with flying colors. George Merrick’s insistence on quality construction resulted in the least property damage recorded in the metropolitan area and no loss of life.

Merrick’s unusual combination of vision and well-developed aesthetic sensibilities allowed him to create what many objective observers believe to be the most attractive urban environment in Florida. Unfortunately for history, he wasn’t possessed of pockets deep enough to ride out economic disaster. One after the other, the financial bust of 1926 and then the savage punch delivered by the Great Depression KOed south Florida and directly resulted in Merrick’s downfall, eventual bankruptcy, and loss of control over the future of Coral Gables. Despite some of the later projects being developed according to his plans, many were not and it shows today.

Although George was determined to build a balanced community, in large measure he did not succeed. Today, most of the current residents are white, upwardly mobile, or in the already-made-it-big class. However, tucked away in the sea of moneyed, white swells is at least one pocket of diversity, the MacFarlane Homestead Historical District, an African-American community of historic homes. The majority of the houses are relatively modest examples of the Masonry Vernacular style, with about 30 structures of interest to historians, architects, and house-type academics. The most important structure is St. Mary’s First Missionary Baptist Church, built in 1926. Sad to say, in violation of the spirit of George Merrick, over the past several decades the City of Coral Gables has not distinguished itself in the way it has systematically neglected that neighborhood and the needs of its residents.

Implications

For readers interested in hard reality, here’s the bottom line. Coral Gables is far from perfect. It tries too hard to ever achieve that elusive goal. The City is way too smug in its self-congratulatory superiority and is way too pricey to achieve that spontaneity of spirit that marks truly engaging and distinctive urban neighborhoods. Plus, it’s not nearly as densely built as it should be, has strictly limited mixed use and precious little diversity, and is basically a very attractive suburb. But . . . even today, with George Merrick’s vision of his “City Beautiful” sadly incomplete, Coral Gables can still lay claim to the title, “The most beautiful Garden City in the world.”

Coral Gables teaches us a great many lessons but only if we are open to learn. Although planned communities may work much better than unplanned ones, not all plans or planners have equal value. Simply because a professional urban planner drew up a plan for a traditional subdivision doesn’t mean that you will be spared the pains of poor design. Planners, even the brightest and most creative, seldom have the latitude to do what they may know is right in terms of residential densities, street orientation, mixed uses, diversity, etc. After all, they answer to the people who control the land and the development. That reality is also true for planners who work for public agencies, because typically their hands have been tied by developers who have made substantial financial contribution to the local politicians’ campaign funds and thus are able to set what should be public policy. In part, Coral Gables provides a fortuitous and atypical example of how sound urban planning can work to benefit the future of south Florida since the land’s owner and developer was the one with the brilliant concept and who pushed it through to (partial) completion.

But what the old-style urban development of George Merrick and Coral Gables lacked — mixed uses, high densities, and diversity — has been addressed, at least in part, by today’s New Urbanist communities and even in nearby Miami Beach. Next, I’ll take a critical look at Miami Beach and several highly visible examples of New Urbanism.

The message I’m stretching for is that competent urban planning and design can create communities where land is used efficiently, auto transportation demand is minimized, and pedestrian-friendly spaces are the rule rather than the exception. In south and central Florida, regions facing enormous population pressure in an environment with scarce and sensitive land-water resources, that’s a message that can’t be ignored or discounted.