Grand Avenue Live-Work Units: Fall 2000.  Architecture students were asked to develop designs with Caribbean architectural references for a string of substandard lots facing Grand Avenue.  This part of Grand Avenue has been considered a prime opportunity for starter homes, featuring an office on the ground floor and residential space in the rear and above.  The student designers used add-on wooden balconies to ameliorate required setback constraints.

Carter Street house renovations: Fall 2000.  Many abandoned homes in West Coconut Grove had become drug and crack houses before they were finally boarded up by the Miami Police.  Today these structures provide important opportunities to extend homeownership programs.  Depending on zoning, they can be renovated into one- or two-unit homes.  The architecture students produced designs for typical prototype renovations.

3659 Grand Avenue: renovation of mixed-use complex, Spring 2001.  A boarded-up, two-story building shell with parking on an adjacent lot was seen as an ideal opportunity to create a small mixed-use project to demonstrate the potential for a building renaissance along Grand Avenue.  Numerous student designs were presented to show the benefits of adding on and repurposing the existing building.  With a grant from HUD, the university is now helping the owner, the Urban Empowerment Corporation, make this a reality.

Carter Street House: Spring 2001.  A local affordable-home developer, Wind & Rain, Inc., has supported University of Miami student design projects over the years.  In this case it offered a lot with a large existing oak tree as a design opportunity.  The tree and its roots became a key ingredient in the design of a two-story home.

Ace Theater Complex:  The subject of a number of architectural class projects and theses over the years, this community landmark has been closed for nearly twenty years, waiting new life.  Today it sits adjacent to some vacant land, which suggests the creation of an adjacent courtyard and cultural performance space.  This building has great potential to serve as a keystone for the revival of Grand Avenue, but as is typical of many local properties, the family which owns it does not have the funds to rejuvenate it.  Nevertheless, they recognize its future potential and past history as an active cinema and auditorium.  Many student designs have been presented that illustrate opportunities for this building.

New York St. Townhouses: Spring 2001.  A property owned by the Local Development Corporation, zoned for two-family occupancy, was offered to the students as an opportunity to create a new housing prototype.  The property owner selected a student design which would create attached townhouses.  By joining the units, additional living space could be created in an area normally devoted to side-yard setbacks.  The resulting side-by-side houses were spacious, attractive and unique.

St. Matthews Church Fellowship Hall Addition: Spring 2002.  Becoming involved in the community and offering the School of Architecture’s expertise has led to requests from individuals and organizations to advise on design possibilities.  Whenever possible, the CUCD has provided schematic designs for these projects as a way to help property owners begin to envision what might be built.  Careful to not take business away from local architects, the work only responds to projects which would not happen if an organization like the CUCD did not initiate the new ideas.

Green Gardens Herb Restaurant and Grocery: Spring 2002.  The owner of a nondescript building on Grand Avenue wanted to open a café and shop for his fresh-herbs business.  In order to do this, however, he needed to improve his building to attract customers and accommodate a display of products and services.  The architecture students designed several schemes to reorient the building and use traditional materials to create a large porch for sitting and sampling beverages and snacks.

Gils’ Spot Renovation and Addition: Spring 2002.  An abandoned building at the main intersection in West Coconut Grove posed a difficult problem for architecture students: how to make the most of an existing structure while adding the type of flair that might attract new tenants.  The successful solution demonstrated how a shallow, two-story addition could greatly expand usable area on the property.  The resulting renovation now promises to spur redevelopment of the three other underused corners of the intersection.

Transit-Oriented Development at Douglas Station:  Spring 2003.  A prime gateway property on the main north-south artery entering West Coconut Grove is currently occupied by county welfare offices.  The county has offered the property for development gratis, if new development there were to replace its existing 25,000-sq.ft. facility as part of a larger mixed-use development.  Since this property is located across the highway from a mass-transit station, it might provide an ideal location for a transit-oriented-development (TOD).  So far, the community has turned down designs that it feels are too dense for this site.  But the university has prepared schematic studies that show how such a complex might be a tremendous asset if proper planning principles are observed.

Above: Miami Springs aerial perspective