Redland: A Preservation and Tourism Plan

An architect and an artist, Rocco Ceo teaches courses in design, Design/Build (with Jim Adamson), foundation courses in freehand and mechanical drawing, drawing seminars on color theory, Michelangelo, Historic American Building Survey/HABS and Historic American Landscape Survey/HALS. He has produced drawings of the elements of Florida’s landscapes as well as the documentation of seminal sites in the history of South Florida such as Vizcaya and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas home. His published work includes the award winning books, Redland: A Preservation and Tourism Plan done with Margot Ammidown and Maria Nardi and Historic Landscapes of Florida co-authored with Joanna Lombard. His architecture practice focuses on the unique relationship between architecture and landscape found in the American Tropics. His work has received awards from the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation, Progressive Architecture, and I.D. Magazine and the Miami Chapter of AIA. His interest in paradox found in the study of the natural world informs his architecture, research and painting.

Courses in architecture were first offered at the University of Miami as early as 1926, however programs in architecture and the allied arts did not survive the effects of the Great Miami Hurricane, and the Great Depression. Architectural engineering courses resurfaced under the auspices of the School of Engineering in the late 1940s following World War II, and by 1983, during President Thaddeus "Tad" Foote's administration, the Department of Architecture became independent from the School of Engineering developing into the School of Architecture proper. New campus quarters established at Building 49 (Dickinson Drive) and part of first floor of the adjacent Eaton student residences. The first Dean of the School was John Thomas Regan (1983-1989).