Coral Gables is George Merrick's planned utopia made real, or as real as a 1920s developer's Mediterranean Revival fantasy can be a century later. The neighbourhood was designed as a complete community — residential streets, commercial centre, parks, a university (the University of Miami), and civic buildings — in a consistent architectural vocabulary of coral rock, barrel tile roofs, and arched colonnades that evoke the Spanish Mediterranean. The Biltmore Hotel, with its Giralda-inspired tower and its enormous pool, is the neighbourhood's architectural centrepiece and a genuine landmark.
The Venetian Pool — a coral rock quarry transformed into a Mediterranean swimming hole in 1924, fed by spring water — is one of the most beautiful public pools in America. Giralda Avenue's pedestrianized restaurant row brings outdoor dining energy to the otherwise residential streets. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, on Old Cutler Road at the neighbourhood's southern edge, provides 83 acres of tropical immersion.
Coral Gables operates at a deliberately slower tempo than the rest of Miami, and the Mediterranean architecture, the tree canopy, and the Miracle Mile shopping corridor create a neighbourhood that feels like a different city — which, historically, it is.