Miami-Dade County’s Coconut Grove area and the City of Coral Gables will soon be home to Gables Station, a 4.3-acre transit-oriented development divided into three towers with a hotel, luxury apartments, retail, and green spaces. Developer NP International’s plans were approved by the City of Coral Gables earlier this year with the hopes of breaking ground by next summer.
The Gables Station project has proposed to incorporate a traditional Bahamian building design. While this decision will surely be aesthetically pleasing for US-1 commuters, its purpose is both commemoratory and practical.
More than one hundred years ago, the area now known as Coconut Grove was first settled by pioneers from the Bahamas. The neighborhood thrived in the early 1900s with black-owned businesses and uniquely designed single-family homes and churches. In recent years, local government and the University of Miami have led initiatives to preserve and honor the Grove’s Bahamian influence by saving/restoring many unique homes and establishing landmarks. It follows that NP International’s decision to incorporate a Bahamian-style architectural design pays homage to the Bahamian settlers who helped cultivate the Coconut Grove area located across US-1.
However, the Bahamian-style design, along with art installations that will highlight Coconut Grove’s Bahamian history, also satisfies the City of Coral Gables’s Art in Public Places ordinance. Across the nation, states and local municipalities have codified art in public spaces programs. Most programs require that publicly-funded developments must contribute 0.5-1.5% of the cost of construction to a government-run art fund or acquire artwork for permanent displays in the interior or exterior of public access facilities. However, the City of Coral Gables’s Art in Public Spaces Program goes further and requires that private developments with a project value of over $1 million, must either pay 1% of the project’s value to the City’s Art Acquisition Fund or seek a waiver. A developer may be granted a waiver by:
1) Acquiring or commissioning artwork with an appraised value equal to or greater than the amount of the Art in Public Places Fee that otherwise would be required and incorporate it within the development;
2) Donating to and installing artwork in the City with an appraised value equal to or greater than the amount of the Art in Public Places Fee that otherwise would be required;
3) Causing the purchase, designation, restoration, or perpetual maintenance of historically significant buildings in an amount equal to or greater than the amount of the Art in Public Places Fee that otherwise would be required; or
4) Buying and donating parcels to the City previously identified in the City’s Parks and Open Spaces Inventory Analysis in an amount equal to or greater than the amount of the Art in Public Places Fee that otherwise would be required.
Further, the Gables Station project isn’t the only new mixed-use development in the area. Along US-1, from Le Jeune Road to 27th Avenue, multiple mixed-use developments are popping up adjacent to the Metrorail Stations aiming to take advantage of the easy transit access. Many of these developments will be incorporating their art in public places fees into their developments by constructing a portion of the Underline, a ten-mile linear park and urban trail being constructed below the Metrorail. Public art, whether incorporated traditionally, architecturally, or into the Underline Park will undoubtedly provide the Coconut Grove US-1 corridor with a much-needed vibrant ambiance that will harmonize with the implementation of the transit-oriented developments that have been proposed.
