Coral Gables, FL

Coral Gables still displays the 1920s plan that made it both a City Beautiful project and a Garden City. Winding avenues, landscaped medians, plazas, fountains, ceremonial entrances, and Mediterranean Revival buildings were composed as parts of a larger civic design. The plan grew from the Merrick family's Coral Gables Plantation. Their 1910 house used native coral rock, supplied the city's name, and established materials and forms repeated in later construction. City Hall, completed in 1928 from native oolitic limestone, continues to serve its original municipal purpose. With more than 1,000 properties on the local historic register, preservation operates at the scale of streets and districts as well as individual landmarks. Several historic structures remain active public places. The quarry that supplied limestone for early construction became Venetian Pool, which opened in 1924 as the Venetian Casino and later received National Register recognition.

ATTRIvan Curra / CC BY-SA 3.0

Its loggias, bridges, grottoes, and open water turn a former excavation into a municipal swimming facility. The old police and fire station, built through the Works Progress Administration, now houses the Coral Gables Museum and the city's historical-resources offices; sculptures above the former apparatus bays still show firefighters and a household under their protection. Merrick House operates as a city museum with docent tours. Swimming, exhibitions, and local-history programs keep the founding-era landscape in regular public use. A major employment center operates within that carefully planned setting. As of August 2026, Coral Gables reported a workforce nearly as large as its resident count, with more than 10,000 firms occupying over 11 million square feet of commercial space.

ATTRLuis Villa / CC BY-SA 4.0

Banking, investment, health care, and professional services have a substantial presence; Bacardi and Fresh Del Monte maintain international headquarters in the city. The University of Miami is Coral Gables' largest employer, and its main campus occupies about 240 acres south of downtown. Classrooms, research, athletics, performances, and the Lowe Art Museum add to the daily schedule. Nearby Miami International Airport, PortMiami, and downtown Miami support the concentration of international companies and consular activity. Miracle Mile, the stretch of Coral Way between LeJeune and Douglas roads, joins Giralda Avenue and Ponce de Leon Boulevard in the downtown commercial and cultural center. Restaurants and independent shops share the district with Actors' Playhouse in the 1948 Miracle Theatre, Coral Gables Art Cinema, galleries, and the museum.

ATTREscuadro / CC BY-SA 4.0

The 2026 Giralda Sky series added two overhead installations to pedestrianized Giralda Plaza: handwoven textiles made by artisan women from Etzatlán, Mexico, from May through July, followed by a floral-umbrella canopy scheduled from August through October. On the first Friday of each month, Gallery Night keeps participating art spaces open into the evening. The trolley runs free Monday through Saturday and carries more than one million riders in an average year. Trolleys and on-demand vehicles link Gallery Night venues; regular routes connect downtown with Douglas Road Metrorail, and a one-year Southern Loop pilot launched in November 2025 extends toward the University of Miami.