
Ralph and Tollyn Twitchell. Paul Rudolph. Victor Lundy. Gene Leedy. Tim Seibert, Jack West, William Rupp and many more. Wherever you choose to venture, a stroll through Sarasota almost inevitably yields a mid-century treasure trove. Although the small Florida city continues to punch leagues above its weight as a locus of architectural culture, the Sarasota School of Architecture remains a byword for the post-war 20th century, with many of its most famous buildings preserved in the loving amber of design heritage. In 2025, a rapidly changing climate demands bold new strategies to preserve the past and imagine the future.
Over a span of just 18 months, the quaint coastal city was hit by six hurricanes, each of which caused notable flooding. In September of last year, for example, Hurricane Helene all but obliterated the Paul Rudolph-designed Sanderling Beach Club cabanas, which had graced the beachside site since 1952. (That same year, architectural theorist and historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock proclaimed that “the most exciting new architecture in the world is being done in Sarasota by a group of young architects.”)

As generational hurricanes like Helene and Milton inch dispiritingly close to becoming seasonal events, the politics of preservation take on a different valence. Across the city, the ambitions of historic preservation inevitably meet the realities of an aggressively changing climate. Near the Sanderling Beach Club cabanas, Rudolph’s nearby Revere Quality House and Healy Guest House (both completed in 1948) face recurring flood damage. Fortunately, the rise of extreme weather coincided with the growth of Architecture Sarasota, a non-profit organization established in 2021 — and evolved out of a pair of former architectural groups — devoted to the legacy of the Sarasota School of Architecture.

Just weeks after Helene and Milton, the group hosted its annual November MOD Weekend, combining immersive architectural tours with a public exhibition and a thought-provoking program of talks. In the wake of recent storms, however, this year’s program was drastically reimagined, evolving from a tighter focus on modernist architectural heritage to a broader yet more urgent emphasis on flood mitigation and the meaning of heritage in a changing climate, organized under the theme of “Restoring a Sense of Place.”

Bringing together experts including landscape architect Chris Reed, Canadian ecological designer Nina-Marie Lister and conservation specialist Rosa Lowinger, the speakers shared their expertise in creating resilient yet historically rich built landscapes. In Florida, it starts with restoring and expanding the endangered local ecosystems of mangroves, coral reefs, sand dunes, coastal hammock forests and oyster beds that collectively contribute to resilient, water-absorbent landscapes.

According to Architecture Sarasota president Morris “Marty” Hylton III, an understanding of heritage and history — whether in the built or natural realm — can shape a worldview for the future. “Our mission at Architecture is a bifurcated one — we’re looking back at the past, but we’re doing it because we want to go forward,” says Hylton III. In addition to supporting preservation and renovation efforts, the non-profit is working to develop vulnerability assessments of the city’s built heritage, while also archiving and cataloguing local architectural history — especially after disaster strikes.

All of that knowledge resonates today. “The architects of the Sarasota School didn’t use the words like ‘sustainable’ and ‘resilient’ in the 1940s, but that’s exactly what they were doing,” Hylton notes, pointing to the emphasis on passive shading and natural ventilation, as well as locally sourced materials and furnishings, that shaped projects like Rudolph’s 1953 Hiss Residence, popularly known as the Umbrella House.

For Hylton and Architecture Sarasota, advocacy for the preservation of history is anything but a call to turn back the clock. Heritage is a living thing. To that end, the organization also recently unveiled Moderns That Matter: Sarasota 100, a book and exhibition project — centred on a list of 100 meaningful places — chronicling a century’s worth of the city’s architectural legacy, ranging from the height of the Florida land boom to the present day. While rigorous historical and architectural research and expert input informed the selection, the initiative was also opened to public nomination, with much of the list sourced via nearly 600 submissions from Sarasota residents and design lovers.

The result is a refreshingly democratic canon of architecture, combining a wide range of typologies — from places of worship and civic institutions to prefabricated single-family homes — with thoughtful and sometimes deeply personal accounts. Describing Tollyn Twitchell’s 1959 Arguedes / Zig Zag House, for example, nominator Catherine Farello describes the home’s value through human experience rather than architectural jargon. “We met a man who grew up in the house, and he was moved to tears with the memories of all the artist parties his mother had there,” she writes.

The final entry is a surprise. Number 100 is not a building or a landscape project but the Sarasota waterfront itself. As the text notes, the city’s “sense of place is inextricably linked to the water.” It may not be an architecture project, but it gracefully distills the initiative’s ethos. As Hylton III put it, the Sarasota 100 project — and Architecture Sarasota itself — is rooted in “the idea that our built environment really encapsulates our values as a community.” It may not add up to easy answers for heritage preservation in the century ahead, but it is a potent reminder of why architecture matters, and what it has to teach us.
Sarasota’s Modernist Heritage Navigates the Climate Crisis
Following a series of devastating hurricanes, Florida’s mecca of mid-century design confronts the tensions between historic preservation and resiliency.