The Jorge M. Perez Architecture Center

The University of Miami School of Architecture Jorge M. Perez Architecture Center is the centerpiece of the five-building Architecture complex located in the heart of the University’s Coral Gables campus. The 8,600 square foot building is made possible by a donation from Jorge M. Perez, founder and CEO of The Related Group of Florida and a University of Miami Trustee. It was designed by Leon Krier with Merrill Pastor Architects of Vero Beach and the firm of Ferguson Glasgow Schuster and Soto of Coral Gables. Krier is a world renowned architectural theorist and innovator in traditional architecture and urbanism. It houses the Stanley and Jewell Glasgow Lecture Hall with 144 seats, gallery space with 150 running feet of exhibition surface, and the Marshall and Vera Lea Rinker Classroom, all video linked. The Architecture Center provides an appropriate setting for distinguished speakers and a variety of public events that makes it the hub of the School’s activities, as well as an important part of the School’s outreach to the regional community.

Leon Krier’s theories are the foundation for the urban development recommendations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Union and have been widely applied in Europe and in the United States through the New Urbanism. He has taught at the School of Architecture as well as at the Architectural Association and Royal College in London, Princeton University, Yale University, and Harvard Design School. His awards include the Berlin Prize for Architecture, The Driehaus Prize, and the Jefferson Memorial Medal.

Merrill Pastor Architects have exhibited in the Chicago Athenaeum and the Institute of Classical Architecture in New York. In 2004 they won the National AIA Design Award for the Seaside Chapel and in 1999 the National AIA Design Award for the Windsor Town Center as well as The Driehaus Prize.

The firm of Ferguson Glasgow Schuster and Soto was founded in 1955 in Coral Gables, home of the University of Miami. The late Senior Partner Stanley Glasgow was an alumnus of the School of Architecture and a member of the Board of Trustees of the University. Mr. Glasgow’s close relationship with the School dates back to 1984 when his firm established a scholarship for UM architecture students. The new building was in large part the result of a substantial gift from the Stanley and Jewell Glasgow Estate. Natividad Soto, also an alumnus, is president of the firm, and managed the construction documents and construction of the building.

Other donors who enabled the completion of the Architecture Center include: Thomas F. Daly for the Center’s loggia; and Leonard and Jayne Abess for the breezeway.

Groups interested in reserving space in the building may contact the School of Architecture Director of Public Relations at or 305-284-5002.