U-SoA’s location within the metropolitan Miami area provides an outstanding laboratory for research and advanced study of architecture and urban design.
Its main campus, at the heart of the Garden City of Coral Gables, was designed in 1944-45 by Robert Law Weed and Marion Manley, (the first licensed female architect in the State of Florida), and continues to grow with new buildings by Michael Dennis, Leon Krier, Arquitectonica International and others.
The challenges of conservation and development are intense in one of the nation’s fastest growing urban areas.
These challenges result in an increasing demand for skilled professionals.
In Downtown Miami and Brickell, high-rise apartment building construction has surged in the last ten years, more than quintupling the resident population.
The Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) was designed by Swiss architects Herzog & De Meuron and opened in 2013.
The British firm of Nicolas Grimshaw designed the under-construction Frost Science Museum. Wynwood and the Design District, two rapidly re-developing areas provide an urban setting for Art Basel (annually) and year-round for the arts, education, interior design and quality retail.
Across Biscayne Bay, Miami Beach hosts a public life that is anchored by a strong preservation movement with ten historic districts with buildings ranging from the early 1920s to the late 1960s.
With the opening of the New World Symphony (designed by Frank Gehry), its adjacent park (by Adriaan Geuze of the Dutch firm West 8), the award-winning mixed-use parking garage (by Herzog & De Meuron on Lincoln Road), and other projects (by Enrique Norten and Zaha Hadid), the city has become a destination for observing contemporary architecture as well.
