Members' 25-Year Reminiscences

Serafin Leal, AICP

Miami, Florida

My professional experience as a planner has been interesting and unique. It covers education and planning work in two radically different countries and systems.

I was born in Cuba in 1932, a peasant. I was adopted at age five by a childless Havana professional couple. I received a six-year degree in architecture from the University of Havana in 1956. While in school, I won the first prize in an international contest for schools of architecture in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Competing teams included Harvard, Beaux Art (France), and Waseda (Japan).

When the Castro revolution took over in 1959, I was named Head of Planning and Design for rural housing at the national level. As such, I pioneered the development of new rural villages throughout Cuba. The concept allowed the availability of services, adequate housing, and nearness to agricultural production centers and regional road systems.

In 1961, political conditions in Cuba forced me to become a political refugee in the United States. For over four years, I had the opportunity, as an Associate with Milo Smith and Associates Planning Consultants in Tampa, Florida, to work in the historic preservation program for Ybor City in Tampa. Also, I was involved in working in the first urban renewal programs in Florida, namely, Daytona Beach and Tampa. As an urban renewal pioneer in a Southern state, I had very interesting experiences including planning, design, legal, and political considerations. I joined AIP in the early sixties.

Having decided that planning was my long-term professional choice in the United States, I entered the Georgia Tech planning program and received a Master of City Planning degree in 1969. It was not easy during those two years. I had my wife, one baby daughter, and (as if that were not enough) my mother-in-law under my care. Still, enough effort was put into the program that I was elected President of the Georgia Tech Planning Society by my peers, and received the AIP student award, voted by the program professors.

After receiving my planning degree, I joined the Florida office of Candeub, Fleissig and Associates in Newark, New Jersey. As an Associate and eventually Regional Manager, I was involved in urban renewal projects and comprehensive planning work for Florida counties and cities. Some of the more interesting work included locating a junior college in downtown Miami and emergency planning work for Panama City, Florida and Biloxi, Mississippi as a result of extensive damage inflicted by hurricanes. I became an AICP charter member in 1978.

The next phase of my professional work started in 1980, when I joined Lennar Homes, in charge of planning and design. As such, I was involved in the design of large residential communities, primarily in southeast Florida.

For the last 15 years, I have worked as a real estate development consultant for large developers, investors, and lenders in southeast Florida. At present, I stay busy working on matters relating to my faith and doing occasional consulting assignments.

This brief summary of my long and hectic professional life, in two different countries and systems, would not be complete if I did not finish it by making the following, deeply felt statement:

I thank this country from the bottom of my heart for receiving me as a refugee and giving me countless opportunities to have a rewarding family and professional life. In particular, I am grateful to many U.S. planners, in agencies and in private work, who supported and helped me, and took the trouble to know, understand, and accept me as "one of the boys," a Cuban with a funny accent.

It can truly be said that one of the most underrated qualities of our profession is its sincere and enduring love for our fellow beings and the environment in which we all dwell.