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The years: 1941 to 1966.
The place: Sarasota, Florida.
The story: a sudden burst of fresh, innovative houses by a group of Americans who caught the imagination of the international architectural community. Inflected by local climate, construction practices, regional culture, and Florida life-style, the work of the Sarasota school of architecture founded by Ralph Twitchell and counting Paul Rudolph, Mark Hampton, Victor Lundy, and Gene Leedy among its practitioners undefined marks a high point in the development of regional modernism in American architecture.
In Europe after World War I, a startling new approach to architectural design emerged. The International style (or Bauhaus as it was known under the European school that taught it) turned its back on historic precedent and exploited the new materials and technologies of the day. Traditional decorative elements or references to past architectural styles were swept away, producing a minimalist architecture of flat-roofed buildings with smooth, unornamented walls and delicate, carefully proportioned facades.
While the Sarasota School found its inspiration in part from the philosophies of the Bauhaus, it incorporated forms of regional Southern architecture, using patios, verandas, modular construction and raised floors to open up its buildings for greater ventilation in pre-air conditioning days. The style added a play of light and shadow, and the color and texture of indigenous low maintenance materials, softening the cold machine aesthetic of the Bauhaus. This approach to design strengthened the connection between architecture and environment, allowing Sarasota School buildings to respect and blend well into their sites. The result was a regional modernism which blurred the distinction between the indoors and outdoors and accommodated the lifestyle and climate of southern Florida.
"Sarasota in the 1950s was one of the most important places in the world for architectural creativity, where the greatest design movements of the day came together."
— Carl Abbott FAIA, original member of the Sarasota School of Architecture
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Tour Sarasota Architecture
Join SAF and receive a free copy of Tour Sarasota as part of your membership. Tour Sarasota is also available for $10 at the Sarasota Convention and Visitors Bureau (SCVB) Visitors Center at 701 North Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL.
Tour Sarasota Architecture is a two-hour driving tour that explores Sarasota’s architecturally significant buildings. It received the 2010 Outstanding Preservation Education / Media award from the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation. www.floridatrust.org
The Sarasota Architectural Foundation, with support from the Sarasota Convention and Visitors Bureau (SCVB), The Ringling College of Art and Design, the Gulfcoast Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and the Sarasota County History Center, developed the tour. A dedicated group of experts, historians and architects volunteered their time and expertise to the project completed in 2009. All design costs were eliminated when The Ringling College of Art and Design adopted the project as part of its Ringling College Design Center – a program where advanced students take on community design projects for school credit.
The majority of the featured buildings celebrate a body of regional architecture called the Sarasota School of Architecture, built from 1940 - 1970. Tour Sarasota is an introduction, not a complete tour, intended to give the public a taste of Sarasota's rich architectural heritage.
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