Community People 

Phineas Paist

Staff

Architect
August 1873 – May 1937

“Paist Was A True Artist. He Possessed That Rare Urge To Do Everything Well …”

Phineas Paist was part of George Merrick’s “dream team,” though he joined slightly later than the original members. An American architect educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Paist traveled throughout Europe and attended ateliers in Paris before he came to Miami and made his reputation as one of the city’s first registered architects, working on Charles Deering’s Vizcaya estate on Biscayne Bay. He became the supervising architect for Merrick’s Coral Gables Corporation in 1923 and held that position until his death in 1937, bringing with him his ideas on the overall aesthetic of the City of Coral Gables – including the colors and materials used to build the city. He also assisted Merrick in creating meticulously detailed zoning ordinances to maintain the character of their fledgling city and served on the Committee on Building Codes, the Planning Board, and the Committee on Zoning. He was also the director of the Florida Association of Architects and the chairman of the Architecture Committee and the Exhibition Committee of the Architectural League of Greater Miami.

Accomplishments

Paist is the architect behind myriad enduring Coral Gables landmarks, including: Douglas Entrance, Venetian Pool, the Colonnade Building, Coral Gables City Hall, the Charles Deering Estate, and the former Coral Gables Police and Fire Station, now the Coral Gables Museum. All, save the Colonnade Building, are on the United States’ National Register of Historic Places. Most famously, he transformed an abandoned rock quarry into what is now the iconic Venetian Pool. Sadly, he died before he could see the Police and Fire Station completed.

What He Said

Though Paist frequently denied interviews, preferring to let his architecture speak for itself, his friend and distinguished architect Richard Kiehnel wrote about him in 1938 after his death: “Paist was a true artist. He possessed that rare urge to do everything well and put the full force of his soul into it regardless of size, compensation, or importance. He did not measure the scope of his commissions with a yard stick of dollars and cents; so, likewise, the rare value of his artistic productions cannot be measured by any standard. This is inestimable. This reflects the soul of the true artist.”