Resources

In the early 1920’s, George Merrick and a team of architects and landscape architects laid out the plans for Coral Gables – a garden-city comprised of miles winding canals, tree-lined roadways, and grand houses. That plan included the present-day University of Miami campus at the heart of Merrick’s city, lushly planted with an array of tropical trees. Today, a Metrorail stop just across the boulevard from the University links the school to historic landmarks such as Vizcaya, James Deering’s palatial estate and gardens, and further north, downtown Miami and its Cultural Center, as well as the University of Miami School of Medicine. Students enjoy the security and serenity of an ideally situated suburban campus while maintaining easy access to the museums, libraries and cultural events of a major city.

Because of its fragile environment and the need to conserve its resources of water, dry land and clean air, South Florida provides a valuable laboratory for studying issues pertaining to the use of diminishing natural resources. Through studio projects and resources, students are introduced to the interaction of the environment and human habitation as well as the impact of development on a subtle and vulnerable landscape. In January 2007, the symposium “Under the Sun: Sustainable Innovations and Traditions,” co-sponsored with the Green Building Council, South Florida Chapter was designed to promote and discuss green building practice.

The relationship between the school and its physical context is vital to its educational methodology, calling upon students to analyze and understand the complex interactions of contemporary life and the substance of rapid change in the city. Course work looks to local practitioners and local history to provide the opportunity for original and primary research.

The School’s Center for Urban and Community Design provides another venue for participation in the life of the community and its political and social fabric, and the Knight Program in Community Building advances the knowledge and practice of effective community building through interdisciplinary initiatives including fellowships, scholarships, conferences, charrettes, and publications.

In the fall semester of 2007, all students of the School were involved in a concentrated effort to design Miami’s public waterfront — an engagement with the region’s civic realm that extends the legacy of the University’s founders.