A book that argues Coral Gables’ mid-century Modernist buildings deserve a place alongside the city’s better-known Mediterranean Revival landmarks has gained a new distinction: a place in the Miami-Dade Public Library System’s permanent collection.
“Coral Gables: The Moderns (1960–1980)” was accepted through the library system’s Local Author Series, and co-author Karelia Martínez Carbonell will return to a Coral Gables audience Saturday to discuss the book at the Coral Gables Branch Library.
A history hidden in plain sight
The Gazette profiled the book in January ahead of its launch at Books & Books. Its subject is a period of Coral Gables architecture that long received less attention than the city’s founding-era Mediterranean Revival style.
From 1960 to 1980, Modernist architecture brought clean lines, concrete forms, expressive geometry and a more international design vocabulary to a city better known for arched loggias, stucco façades and Spanish-tile roofs.
Carbonell, president of the Historic Preservation Association of Coral Gables, co-authored the book with the late Bruce Fitzgerald, a longtime collaborator whose research and documentation underpin much of the project. Fitzgerald died before the book was released.
Rather than treating Modernism as a departure from Coral Gables’ identity, the authors present it as another stage in the city’s architectural evolution.
The illustrated volume documents residential, commercial and civic buildings constructed during those two decades, including structures residents may pass regularly without knowing their architectural history. Photography and historical research place the buildings within the growth and changing tastes of postwar Coral Gables.
From Books & Books to the library shelf
The book’s acceptance into the Miami-Dade Public Library System gives the project a different kind of permanence after its January debut.
Carbonell called the recognition “an important chapter in Coral Gables’ architectural story.”
Her Sept. 12 appearance also brings the book into a different setting. The January launch at Books & Books introduced the project to a hometown audience. This time, the discussion takes place inside the public library system that has added the book to its collection.
Meet the author on Saturday, Sept. 12
Carbonell will present “Coral Gables: The Moderns (1960–1980)” from 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12, at the Coral Gables Branch Library, 3443 Segovia St.
The program is part of the Miami-Dade Public Library System’s Local Author Series and is open to adults 18 and older. Light refreshments will be served.
Registration is available through the branch at 305-442-8706 or through the library system’s events website at mdpls.org/events.
Those requesting accessible materials, sign-language interpretation or other accommodations may contact the library system at 305-375-5094 or programs@mdpls.org at least five days before the program.
For Carbonell, the appearance brings the project back to the city whose buildings fill its pages. For readers, it offers another chance to look at a period of Coral Gables architecture that the book argues has been visible all along — even when its history was not.
