University of Miami, Old Administration Building, 1300 Campo Santo Drive, Coral Gables, Miami-Dade County, FL

Significance: The University of Miami's original Administration 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. The Administration Building (currently known as the Art Building) served as the built frontispiece to the new campus plan and heralded the University of Miami's allegiance to architectural modernity. The Administration Building, erected in 1947, was intended to be a temporary structure to accommodate the increasing student enrollment at the University of Miami after World War II. Local accounts state that the buildings were almost entirely constructed of war surplus materials donated by the Federal Government for the Veterans Educational program. This temporary building was erected alongside various structures 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 Administration Building is composed of four wooden, repetitive, barrack-lilke structures strung together by an outdoor gallery and a "modernist" vernacular headpiece which housed the original office of the president. Ironically, this wooden building which was originally intended to be a temporary structure is now one of the few architectural examples on 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 the contemporary American campus.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N918
Survey number: HABS FL-471-A
Building/structure dates: 1943-1947 Initial Construction