IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?

     It might be fine to practice medicine in a white, boxy building but would you want to live in one?


    

 Apparently many high-end home buyers do.
That's what the new residential construction looks like in Coconut Grove now.

     "Houses that look like doctors offices, it's the latest thing", a realtor explained, "It's what the new home buyers want.



                                        
It used to be the Mediterranean look but now it's gone modern. We now sell white boxes".

    Looking around the South Grove I suppose he's right. Most of them max out their lots saving just enough room for a postage stamp-size swimming pool.


    Houses like this 


get torn down 

 
to get replaced 

by buildings 

that you'd usually visit

to to get treated for skin cancer.

     A neighbor is now building two of them nearby for re-sale.  When I asked him why he explained that he's following his realtor's advice.  The high volume, no-yard boxes give him the most bang for his bucks.  
    We've seen the modernist movement in the Grove before.  Maybe it was Miami Vice. In the 1980's downtown buildings were replaced by modernist's monstrosities.  I responded with the "Coconut Grove's Ugliest Building Contest".  Many were nominated but


   the Sushi Thai Building won.

 
    Coconut Grove Realty ran a close second.  Cardboard versions of them marched in the 1986 King Mango Strut parade.

    Things change and these white boxes keep popping up.  Realtor-driven designs scare me.
So do visits to doctor's offices.  Living in colorless cube defies my imagination.  
     We need to do more to preserve our old houses.  They're one of the reasons we love Coconut Grove.
     If we don't, a future tourism campaign may be, "Coconut Grove, like going to your next medical procedure".
             _______________________

THE PANTHER IS HERE
       
   We went to the opening of Panther Coffee this morning and it was wonderful.  Arriving just after eight there was one person in line.  By the time we were sipping our thick cafe lattes it had grown to twenty. 
    Panther Coffee is located on Main Highway, a half block north of the Grove's ugliest building. 
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