Modernism in Sarasota, Florida

In 2005 Matthew and I won a door prize drawing for a free trip to Sarasota. Since Red Tide was in full bloom that weekend and going to the beach wasn't an option, we spent a good part of our visit just driving around town looking at cool stuff. Part of our tour was guided by the free driving tour produced by Martie Lieberman at Modersarasota.com. Most of these photos come from the Lido Key, were we were able to chat with a local and step out to tour an open house for a splendid little butterfly-roofed beauty: Sarasota could practically be a sister city for our own Scottsdale, Arizona. It is a community that thrives on and invites tourism, appreciates the arts, is generally pretty clean and dare we say seems kinda interesting. Some of these million dollar homes face the same fate as many of our own architectural gems in Phoenix: they are being purchased for land value alone and then razed or remodeled beyond recognition. Like developments in our own Modern Phoenix, The Sarasota School of Architecture and its survivors stand on the threshold of an important time in history that may only survive if it is preserved house by house by sensitive stewards. Even the parking structures were cool :-)