5100
blocks of Riviera Dr. and Maggiore St. between
Sansovino and Castania Aves.,
Coral Gables
Chinese
Village, a complex of eight homes, is one of the six
international villages created by land developer
George Merrick. Under Merrick, real estate
development was brought to an art form. He hired
architects trained abroad to create neighborhoods,
or villages, with a particular historical or
architectural style.
Besides
the Chinese Village, intended to resemble a
traditional residential compound in China, Merrick
developed French City Village, French Country
Village, French Normandy Village, Dutch South
African Village, Florida Pioneer Village, and
Southern Colonial Village. The most exotic of
Merrick’s many creations, Chinese Village was
designed by Henry Killam Murphy, an authority on
Chinese architecture. He designed several structures
in China. Bamboo ornamentation adorns the concrete
wall that defines this block of Chinese-style
residences. The houses have blue-tile eaves and
roofs, elaborate window grills, and latticework on
the balconies.
These
residential villages stand in contrast to the
Spanish influence seen almost everywhere else in
affluent 14-square-mile Coral
Gables. Merrick made
the city what it is today. Dubbed "City
Beautiful," Coral Gables was built in the 1920s
as one of the first planned communities in the
nation. Merrick, who owned 3,000 acres of land in
the area, dreamed of building an American Venice
with sprawling villas and canals. He studied the
architectural styles of Mediterranean countries,
including Spain, and envisioned a park-like city
with a Mediterranean theme. Merrick realized his
vision, which still stands today. Most of his
buildings are meticulously preserved as historic
landmarks.
Influenced
by the City Beautiful movement of the early 1900s,
Merrick developed Coral Gables with well-paved
tree-shaded boulevards emanating from ornate plazas,
lots of green space, attractive lamp posts, and
careful zoning laws assigning different elements of
the community their own separate sections.
Known
for his passionate devotion to aesthetics, Merrick
developed the city’s elaborate entrances, the
award-winning City Hall, and the landmark Biltmore
Hotel, as well as the strikingly different
international villages.
