"Exploring the Painstaking Restoration of the Venetian Pool" in Coral Gables

This is a pool that won't have any trouble attracting visitors and swimmers alike. You see, unlike the Lake Worth Municipal Pool, it's not a rectangular hole in the ground with water in it. This pool has other things. Cool things. Fun things. This pool doesn't have that 'institutional' vibe . . . a pool at the Lake Worth Beach and you can't see the precious beach from the pool. It is still a lovely and serene place, but does not take advantage of the prime, oceanfront location that it occupies.

Read the following from the Curbed Miami blog and look at all the cool pictures in this photo tour of this spectacular renovation:

Coral Gables' Venetian Pool reopened Saturday March 14th after only the third renovation since its creation in 1923, a restoration and preservation that sought to change as little as possible while giving the venerable pool some tender loving care. Commissioned by George Merrick, who wanted to turn a rock quarry that had been used to build many of the Gables' early houses into a 'Venetian Casino' (in those days a 'casino' was any building used for pleasure or social amusements, sometimes with swimming), artist Denman Fink and architect Phineas Paist created an 820,000 gallon lagoon that would be emptied and refilled every day in the spring and summer seasons by the underground Floridan aquifer, waterfalls, grottoes for swimming, a sandy beach, an island, and of course the casino itself, flanked by two tall lookout towers.

You have to look at the pictures in this photo tour. Absolutely amazing.