Architecture Sarasota to host four-part forum on history, future of downtown Sarasota

Architecture Sarasota is launching “Downtown Sarasota: Hindsight, Insight and Foresight,” a four-part speaker series conceived to spark an informed and constructive communitywide discussion about downtown’s future.

Beginning on Jan. 24 at Art Ovation Hotel, the series will explore downtown Sarasota's evolution over the last two decades with four distinguished speakers – Andrés Duany, David Houle, Mitchell Silver, and Victor Dover. Topics will include the current downtown master plan and how it was shaped two decades ago; how downtown has developed since then; the macro-level forces affecting the city; effective current downtown planning practices; and insights drawn from successful urban planning in other locales.

“Sarasota is experiencing a period of rapid growth and expansion,” said Marty Hylton III, president of Architecture Sarasota. “We believe this lecture series will provide a forum for the community to pause and reflect on how we got here, examine what is happening currently, and discuss the future of downtown Sarasota."

The first lecture on Jan. 24 will feature Duany, founding principal of DPZ CoDesign, the principal consultants responsible for the current downtown master plan (Downtown Sarasota 2020). Duany will offer an overview of downtown master planning in Sarasota that occurred between 1999 and 2000, outline the conditions under which the Downtown Sarasota 2020 plan was developed; detail the decision-making process and the rationales; assess which of those decisions were successful, and which didn’t quite pay off; and identify the lessons DPZ learned from working on the Sarasota plan project and how a master plan prepared today would differ.

On Jan. 31, David Houle, former resident futurist at Ringling College of Art and Design, will address the demographic, economic, political, and environmental macro-factors that have shaped Sarasota over the past 20 years. By analyzing the experiences of peer cities, paired with trends observed in Sarasota’s own recent history, Houle will offer his perspective on the city’s future development.

Silver, an urban planner, has held the posts of planning director for Raleigh, N.C., president of the American Planning Association, and commissioner of the New York City Parks Department. On Feb. 14, he will provide an overview of how downtown master-planning practices have evolved over the last 20 years, outlining new planning processes and the new sets of concerns facing city planners today, both in general and in Sarasota specifically.

The final presentation on Feb. 28 will feature Dover, founding principal of Dover, Kohl & Partners, a firm emphasizing New Urbanism principles as the foundation for sustainable town planning. Dover will focus on effective master planning in Florida, including the special opportunities and constraints of planning in the state and how to create effective, meaningful master plans.

'Future of our community'

Tickets for the series are $35 or $10 per lecture and can be purchased at ArchitectureSarasota.org. For information, call 352-219-4122. Art Ovation Hotel is located at 1255 N. Palm Ave., Sarasota.

"Architecture Sarasota’s goal is to engage as many residents as possible as these four leading experts present compelling ideas and observations to spark a thoughtful conversation about the future of our community,” Hylton said.

The series is made possible in part through the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, Ian Black Real Estate, Howard and Sherry Davis, and Anne and Bob Essner.

Submitted by Su Byron

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Architecture Sarasota to host four-part forum on downtown Sarasota