CORAL GABLES

city, Dade county, southeastern Florida, U.S., adjoining Miami (northeast). George E. Merrick developed the site from a nucleus of his family's 160 ac (65 ha) of citrus and farmland and named it, at its incorporation in 1925, for the family's house of coral rock walls and gables. It is a well-planned residential area, noted for its landscaped plazas with architecture that blends Spanish with contemporary styles and for unique villages (compounds of houses built in French, South African Dutch, and Chinese styles). Six mi (10 km) of waterway, navigable for small boats, provide access to Biscayne Bay and outside waters. Coral Gables is the seat of the University of Miami (1925), site of the U.S. Weather Bureau's National Hurricane Research Center. Pop. (1990) 40,091.