By Coral Gables Gazette staff
A century of civic vision, Mediterranean aesthetics, and deliberate design goes on display this month as the Coral Gables Museum unveils a major new exhibition marking the city’s Centennial.
Opening Friday, August 29, Blueprints for Beauty: 100 Years of Coral Gables Streetscapes traces the evolution of the city’s public spaces through historic photographs, maps, documents, and original planning materials. The exhibition, housed in the Carole A. Fewell Gallery, runs through December 2 and invites residents to reflect on what made Coral Gables “The City Beautiful”—and what might shape its future.
A civic identity forged in design
The exhibition focuses on the central role that urban planning and architectural vision have played in shaping Coral Gables’ identity. Beginning with George Merrick’s 1920s Mediterranean Revival master plan, the show moves through a century of transformations—capturing how streets, parks, plazas, and civic spaces were imagined, built, and reimagined.
Artifacts include early plats, historic maps, and archival images of familiar landmarks such as Miracle Mile, Granada Boulevard, and Coral Gables City Hall. Together, they provide a lens into how the city’s original vision emphasized not just form, but philosophy: a place where streetscapes would support beauty, order, and community life.
The exhibition also includes materials from less celebrated parts of that story—documents that reveal how shifts in demographics, transportation, zoning, and civic priorities altered the city’s spatial logic over time.
Curatorial collaboration and historical depth
Blueprints for Beauty was co-curated by Yuneikys Villalonga and Ania Rodriguez, with curatorial assistance by Simone Lee. Much of the research and content was developed in collaboration with HistoryMiami Museum Resident Historian Dr. Paul George, whose expertise on Miami-Dade’s urban evolution helps ground the exhibition in broader regional context.
The curators assembled a collection that is as much about memory as it is about form—linking the development of streetscapes and civic spaces to broader themes of belonging, aspiration, and identity. The layout encourages visitors to move chronologically and thematically, from early 20th-century planning ideals to late 20th-century redevelopment and contemporary design debates.
A platform for reflection and forward thinking
More than a historical retrospective, the exhibition includes interactive components and programming that ask what Coral Gables’ next century of design might look like. Throughout the fall, the Museum will host a series of public events, panel discussions, and presentations on topics such as:
- Preserving Merrick’s original design framework
- Adapting streetscapes for climate resilience
- Balancing heritage and density in future zoning
- Civic identity and symbolic public space
These programs are designed to engage residents, students, architects, and planners in active dialogue about the built environment.
Visitors are encouraged to consider how past choices—about where to place a fountain, how wide to make a boulevard, or what shade of pink to paint a stucco wall—shaped the civic culture we now inherit.
Exhibit details
Blueprints for Beauty will be on view from August 29 to December 2 at the Carole A. Fewell Gallery of the Coral Gables Museum, located at 285 Aragon Avenue. For hours, parking, and tickets, visit coralgablesmuseum.org
The exhibition is independently curated by the Coral Gables Museum team. Research contributions by Dr. Paul George and collaboration with HistoryMiami Museum helped inform the historical material presented. The Museum notes that programming reflects independent interpretation and is not affiliated with the City of Coral Gables government.
A timely invitation to look closer
As Coral Gables marks its 100th year, Blueprints for Beauty offers more than nostalgia. It presents a reminder that civic space is never static. It is designed, maintained, questioned, and remade—by both professionals and the public.
Whether it’s a shaded median, a brick-paved plaza, or the curve of a residential boulevard, the physical city carries meaning. This exhibition helps decode those meanings and sparks conversations about how the city might continue evolving with beauty, purpose, and community in mind.
For longtime residents and newcomers alike, it is a chance to see Coral Gables not only as it is—but as it was once envisioned, and as it might one day become.
