"When those Groves begin to bear"

On February 4, 1926 George Merrick addressed the citizens assembled at the corner stone laying ceremony at the University of Miami for the Solomon G. Merrick Building, honoring Merrick’s father a Congregationalist Minister.  Merrick’s dream of founding a great university amidst the idyllic tropical landscape of Miami had finally become a reality.  On that day, Merrick read a poem he had written to honor his father in which each verse concluded with the phrase ” When those groves begin to bear.” The repetition of this phrase signals Merrick’s desires of a prosperous future for his young university. Today we remember the vision of those founding years and celebrate the journey which began with the aspirations of a few and continue through the work of many.

The exhibition commemorating the University’s seventy-fifth anniversary traces a visual history of the School of Architecture through the work of its alumni.  The exhibition includes both theoretical and built work arranged chronologically beginning with a folio of the work of Robert Fitch-Smith and ending with theoretical competition entries by a number of recent alumni. This essay grows out of a desire to frame and create a backdrop for the work on display as a pictorial history of the School of Architecture. Moreover we wanted to elaborate upon common themes that have emerged from seeing the work collectively and to acknowledge similarities that transcend both time and place.

The foundation of the School of Architecture dates to the fall of 1928 when the architect John Llewellyn Skinner, Denman Fink, and Phineas Paist, founded the department. Their work, represented by the early designs for the University and Coral Gables, had the virtues of being collaborative efforts as well as the convergence of Theory and Practice, traditions the school still aspires to instill within its student body. Needless to say the school’s origins were humble, but its aspirations were high. The work of Robert Fitch Smith exemplifies and provides a veritable link to these early years. Robert Fitch Smith graduated from the University in 1931 and became the school’s first alumni to join the faculty.  This tradition continues to this day and is perhaps most clearly exemplified in the career of Professor Jan Hochstim who graduated the program in 1954, and continues as an active member of the faculty. 

A complete folio of the work of Robert Fitch Smith including the “Doc Thomas House” now the Tropical Audubon House in South Miami is showcased alongside documentation drawings of the house rendered in ink on mylar. These drawings were a collaborative effort produced by first year undergraduate students in the spring of 1996 as analytical tools for their design project. The six decades that separate these images attests to the long-standing interest of the school in both historical and vernacular examples of Architecture or perhaps the ultimate pursuit of creating an architecture informed by the local culture of a given place.

This theme may be further elaborated through the work of Richard Cronenberger ’79. Much of his early career was spent producing thorough documentation of important historic buildings for the Historic American Building Survey (HABS).  This interest began at the University of Miami, under the direction of Professor Woodrow Wilson Wilkins, a formidable figure at the school for over three decades. Alumni of these generations would no doubt take delight in the measured drawings and rigorous models produced by students of the School of Architecture in the last ten years.  HABS documentation courses, begun by Professor Wilkins in the 1970’s, continue to be taught under the direction of Professors Teofilo Victoria, Jorge Trelles’81 and Luis Trelles’81. These drawings are exclusively about the documentation of factual information in an effort to understand the formal and constructive character of a particular work of architecture. Thus the interest in studying and documenting historic structures as a means of acquiring architectural knowledge remains a key pedagogical tool at the School of Architecture today.    

Prevalent throughout the exhibition are a multitude of competition entries varying both in scope and content.  The importance of competitions in the professional life of the architect is undeniable.  It allows for the advancement of architectural thinking and the ability to pursue architectural ideas devoid of the immediate constraints placed on the work by a client or a budget.  In the realm of the competition, the architect is free to speculate and even dream. The variety of competition entries in the exhibit range from purely theoretical or speculative fantasies such as Table in the City, a proposal for an urban plaza in New York by Silvia Acosta 83 to competition entries which became realities such as the Brickell Bridge Competition, Jorge Hernandez ’80 and Francis Lyn , Rafael Portuondo ‘82.  Despite the varying size, program, and representational techniques many of the competition entries partake in an overriding concern for the building of the city be that in the design of its monuments or urban design proposals such as the Ocean Green Competition, Erik Vogt ‘92 or The Williamsburg County Courthouse Competition, Jorge Hernandez ‘80; and even in the smallest of projects such as the Tickets Booth Competition by Muayad Abasz ‘98, Ricardo Lopez ‘00, Edgar Sarli ‘99, Nicholai Nedev ‘99, where the city of New York is rendered larger than life. Ultimately, all of these projects share a common interest in the making of an architecture that understands its role in the building of the city.

As we reflect upon our own history at the University of Miami, we realize that like the city itself which is built over time by the collective efforts of many, so too is the university a veritable work in progress, a work which is a testimony to the rich legacy begun seventy-five years ago by Merrick and his contemporaries. Despite the early struggles to build a city and a university, Merrick’s groves have indeed proven to be fruitful, while the vision of the campus remains a powerful force for imaging the future of the university.    

Frank Martinez, Assistant Professor, University of Miami

Carie Penabad,  Lecturer, University of Miami