Help Stop the Perversion of Mediterranean Revival Architecture in Florida - Especially in Boca Raton! Read These 4 Basic Points to Educate Yourself on Classical Architecture

Even though Mies Van der Rohe holds the number one spot as my favorite architect, South Florida’s own Addison Mizner is on my list of favorites at the top. I adore Mediterranean Revival architecture which swept across the US in the 1920s and rooted itself in California and Florida. Characteristics include arched windows and doors, stucco walls, stained glass, wrought iron railings, petite balconies, bell towers, chimneys, stucco, colorful and decorative tiles, barrel tiled roofs, organic floor plans and rhythmic window placements. Today however, it’s so unfortunate that we have an epidemic of ghastly residential work which mimics South Florida’s Mediterranean Revival tradition and makes a total mockery of classical architecture. Ever heard the local term ‘Boca’ home. I guess if you’re in Miami it could be substituted for ‘Coco Plum’ home. It’s derogatory and is certainly not a compliment. So as part of my effort to make a difference in Boca Raton’s architectural community where our firm is headquartered, I recently emailed a self-made real estate broker who farms a specific upscale community. I informed him that his community is an embarrassment to classical architecture and that he should know better and that he should help prevent any new developments like this. I never heard back. Quel surprise! It’s so sad that my ‘hometown’, which is somewhat mistakenly compared with Beverly Hills and other ritzy neighborhoods, has a proliferation of this atrocious architecture.


A ‘Boca’ home is an unattractive, ill-proportioned, over-scaled, inaccurately-detailed attempt at a classical building and the house is too big for the lot. I originally included a ghastly photo with this article but I removed. You can figure out why. I first heard the term ‘Boca’ home in conversation on the island of Palm Beach five years ago. Boca Raton is certainly no Palm Beach. Especially not architecturally speaking. There is no municipal architectural review board for residential construction and this void has allowed residential developers and architects to design and build ’Boca’ homes. There are community associations which police their own developments but they obviously know nothing about architecture. I can understand the builders’ not knowing the difference but shame on all those architects!!! They should know better!! What lousy schools did they attend? Or maybe they tuned-out in design class. It would be best to revoke their licenses. Listen up folks: classical architecture is something to be studied and respected. Joe Shmoe off the street cannot replicate a classical design. Here are 4 basic points of classical architecture:

1. Classical architecture is ancient temple architecture from Greece and Rome – as early as 4000 B.C.

2. Renaissance architects visited, studied, sketched, measured and documented those temples in books which came to be called ‘treatises’. This happened in the 1400s A.D.

3. Each treatise reports specific dimensioning and proportioning systems used in classical architecture which educated architects know to follow. Research Sangallo.

4. Neoclassical architects in the 1700’s and 1800’s followed the treatises and added to the original renaissance architecture but their embellishments kept within the same scales and proportions of the original temple architecture. Those architects had fun. Research Palladio and Thomas Jefferson.

Please educate yourself about this subject and help stop the perversion of classical architecture in Boca Raton Florida!

Best wishes,

CCS Architect

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