Architectural Accolades
Five Sarasota Architects Honored with AIA Florida’s Annual Design Awards
A major award also goes to Sarasota Architectural Foundation leader Janet Minker.
Five Sarasota architects and a leader of the nonprofit Sarasota Architectural Foundation are receiving statewide 2017 Design Awards this weekend at the AIA Florida/Caribbean chapter’s annual conference.
The Elling Eide Center, designed by Guy Peterson, Office for Architecture.
Image: Ryan Gamma
Guy Peterson, Office for Architecture’s Elling Eide Center is one of four Honor Awards of Excellence for New Work. The modern, 17,000-square-foot Eide Center, which opened in October on a 72-acre wooded, bayfront property in mid-Sarasota County, is the repository for the late Elling Eide’s thousands of books and artifacts on China. Eide was an internationally renowned expert in Chinese history and culture.
Caribbean Hillside residence, Carl Abbott.
Image: Courtesy Carl Abbott
Women's Resource Center, Carl Abbott.
Image: Sean Harris
Carl Abbott received two awards: A Merit Award for Sustainable Design for a Caribbean Hillside Residence, and a Test of Time Award for the gracefully curved Women’s Resource Center on South Tuttle Avenue, which Abbott designed in 1989.
Fruitville Elementary School, Sweet Sparkman Architects.
Sweet Sparkman Architects won a Merit Award for Masonry in Design for its playful design of the Fruitville Elementary School addition.
Johann Furst Community Library, Seibert Architects.
Image: Courtesy Seibert Architects
Seibert Architects received a Merit Award of Excellence for Historic Preservation and Restoration for its work on Boca Grande’s Johann Fust Community Library. Michael Epstein served as project designer and architect and Pam Holladay was interior designer. The original library was built in 1950.
Anna Maria Island residence, Halflants + Pichette Studio for Modern Architecture
Image: William S. Speer
Janet Minker
John Pichette of Halflants + Pichette Studio for Modern Architecture was named Builder of the Year for six residences designed and built by his architectural firm in 2014-2017 from Venice north to Anna Maria Island. Shown here is an Anna Maria Island residence he designed and built for a U.K. couple. The raised pool is behind a three-inch-thick piece of Plexiglass that, at five feet by five feet, makes a traffic-stopping viewing window. [Bill Speer photo credit]
And Janet Minker, a longtime leader of the nonprofit Sarasota Architectural Foundation, received the Bob Graham Architectural Awareness Award for her work in “advocating, educating and celebrating the Sarasota School of Architecture movement, [and] working to preserve its midcentury modern structures.” The award is named for former Florida Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham.
