Home > Florida > Coral Gables > University of Miami, Chemistry Laboratory Building, 1300 Campo Santo Drive, Coral Gables, Dade County, FL
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University of Miami, Chemistry Laboratory Building, 1300 Campo Santo Drive, Coral Gables, Dade County, FL
Location1300 Campo Santo Drive,
Coral Gables, FL
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Created/Published
Documentation compiled after 1933.
Notes
Survey number HABS FL-471-B
Unprocessed field note material exists for this structure (N919).
Building/structure dates:
1943 initial construction
Significance: The University of Miami Chemistry Laboratory Building is located within the University of Miami campus along Campo Sano Drive, adjacent to the historic Gifford Arboretum. In 1943, President Bowman Ashe commissioned Marion Manley, Florida's first licensed woman architect, and Robert Law Weed to design the new masterplan for the University of Miami. Their design included a number of temporary wooden buildings erected quickly in order to accommodate the increasing student enrollment after World War II. The Chemistry Laboratory Building, erected in 1947, was intended to be a temporary classroom building. Local accounts state that this structure was almost entirely constructed of war surplus materials donated by the Federal Government for the Veterans Educational program. This temporary building was erected alongside various structure including twenty-eight long demolished buildings referred to as the shacks. Of these early wooden buildings, only three remain: the Administration Building (current Art Building), the Laboratories (current Art Annex), and the Cafeteria (current Photography studios). The Chemistry building is composed of two wooden barrack-like gabled structures joined together by a "U" shaped bar of smaller ancillary rooms. Ironically, this wooden building which was originally intended to be a temporary structure is now one of the few architectural examples of the University of Miami campus which illustrates the humble beginnings of the young institution and serves as a testament to the crucial role that such temporary World War II surplus buildings played in the shaping of a contemporary American campus.
Subjects
EducationLaboratoriesChemistry
Related Names
Ashe, Bowman
Manley, Marion
Weed, Robert Law
Acosta, Leticia, Delineator
Cuaron, Elisa, Delineator
Oliveira, Alice, Delineator
Arcurio, Joshua, Delineator
Carney, Gerald, Delineator
Collection
Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)
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