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Coral Gables: a contemporary urban utopia

Aimar, Stefania (2016) Coral Gables: a contemporary urban utopia. Advisor: Pellegrini, Prof. Emanuele. pp. 203. [IMT PhD Thesis]

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Abstract

The historic City of Coral Gables was designed and developed starting from 1921 as a full-fledged new town, following the dreams and vision of its founder George Merrick. Since the very beginning the development was conceived not as a mere residential suburb but as a functionally integrated garden city. The large-scale plan reveals the influences of the City Beautiful Movement (use of the geometric pattern, the rigorous grid that orders the functional parts of the system, and the use of the diagonals) and the Park Movement and Garden City principles (progressive opening up of the urban structure to accommodate the green public spaces, the canals, the curving street), which guided the harmonious design and planning of the residential suburbs, business and craft sections, public spaces and venues, “entrances” at the main access to the city from Miami, “plazas” at the principal boulevard intersections, public buildings such as schools, churches, the city hall, hotels, and the University. Today’s cityscape is almost unchanged in its essential features, in its architectural components of Mediterranean inspired style, as well as in the urban relationships between the various historic elements originally designed by George E. Merrick. If this is true especially for the residential areas of the first section, built architectural elements such as gates and squares, the scale ratio between the new buildings and the few remaining historical fabric in the downtown area may not be fully adjusted. The investigation of the current preservation policies and tools has revealed that state and local laws have been effectively enforced by the Local Administration and suggests to design the implementation of a database, built on the Florida Master Site File, to support policy decision making, management and research.

Item Type: IMT PhD Thesis
Subjects: N Fine Arts > NX Arts in general
PhD Course: Management and Development of Cultural Heritage
Identification Number: 10.6092/imtlucca/e-theses/282
NBN Number: urn:nbn:it:imtlucca-27307
Date Deposited: 19 Nov 2019 16:25
URI: http://e-theses.imtlucca.it/id/eprint/282

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