Sarasota MOD Weekend opens iconic homes for public tours

Whether you come by car, foot, bicycle, kayak or trolley, Architecture Sarasota is providing some new opportunities to explore homes never or rarely open to the public during its ninth Sarasota MOD Weekend.

This year’s focus is on Tropical Modernism and the influence the Sarasota School of Architecture had around the world as its early designs began creating and teaching architects outside the community.

“The Sarasota School of Architecture was only with us for 10 or 15 years (1941-1966), but we’re looking at where they went and who they influenced,” said Anne Essner, president of the Architecture Sarasota board.

“Paul Rudolph went up to Yale to teach. Think of how many architects he influenced. Carl Abbott, Richard Rodgers and Norman Foster were all in one class,” she said.

Arts Newsletter: Sign up to receive the latest news on the Sarasota area arts scene every Monday

Your November arts calendar: Theater, concerts, dance, exhibitions and more

Concerts, parties, arts and more: 100-plus things to do in November in Sarasota-Manatee, including free outdoor festivals

Just a few years later, Rudolph taught Robert A.M. Stern, who went on to found a firm that bears his name and creates major projects.

“Then Rudolph went off to build in Asia. And Victor Lundy moved down to Texas and did a lot there and in Arizona,” she said. “And Joe Farrell, who built our McCulloch Pavilion with Richard Rupp, went on to do some big projects in Hawaii.”

Those far-flung influences will be discussed during the course of a weekend that includes tours, parties, panel discussions and other events in numerous locations around Sarasota.

But home tours are the heart of the annual event, and this year there are several new or rare open houses, all in the Lido Shores neighborhood, which is filled with mid-century modern and Sarasota School structures.

Online survey open: Sarasota Orchestra seeks public feedback on plans for new music center

Back to the stage: Resilient Venice Theatre plans reopening after Hurricane Ian damage

Mary GrandPré: ‘Harry Potter’ illustrator talks new Sarasota abstract art shw, retirement, J.K. Rowling

One is the Markowitz House, which has never been offered for tours during MOD Weekend. It was recently added to a list of nearly 100 sites in Sarasota County on the National Register of Historic Places.

The ZigZag house designed by Tollyn Twitchell for Ralph Twitchell Architects in 1959, and restored in 2018 by Seibert Architects. It got its name from its sharp angled roof. (An illustration of the Zigzag house by Sarasota artist John Pirman will be for sale to benefit Architecture Sarasota.)

Another rare tour home is the Strandhus, the Norwegian term for beach house, which was renovated by Sweet Sparkman Architects from a modest structure into one that now is more than 4,600 square feet.

Events spread out across the weekend in 2022

This year, the organization has shifted the schedule so that those most interested won’t have to miss some events because they’re taking part in other MOD activities.

“We’re doing house tours on Saturday afternoon, having our symposium on Sunday morning and trolley tours on Sunday afternoon. If you want to do everything, you can,” Essner said. “It’s also easier on our homeowners.”

Essner is one of them. She and her husband own the Umbrella House, where Architecture Sarasota has frequent activities, such as Saturday morning Yoga Under the Umbrella sessions.

On Saturday morning, participants also can take a Trolley Tour of the 1950 Healy Guest House (known as the Cocoon House) and 1948 Revere Quality House. Both were designed by Ralph Twitchell and Paul Rudolph.

Sarasota MOD Weekend was launched by the former Sarasota Architectural Foundation, which modeled the event on Modernism Week in Palm Springs.

“We were primarily focused on the Sarasota School of Architecture and would honor a particular architect each year,” Essner said.

Last year, the foundation merged with the Center for Architecture to create one organization focused on architecture and design in the community. Since then the scope of its activities and programs has broadened.

The weekend begins at  6 p.m. Nov. 10 with the opening of the organization’s new Tropical Modernism exhibition in the McCulloch Pavilion (265 S. Orange Ave., Sarasota), where it will open to the general public on Nov. 17 and continue through February. The building is home to Architecture Sarasota.

The opening party, Bay Breezes at Ca’ d’Zan, will be at 5 p.m. Nov. 11 at The Ringling mansion. Max Strang, founding principle of (STRANG) Design, will mark the publication of a new monograph called “Subtropic” and sign copies at 6 p.m. Nov. 12 at the McCulloch Pavilion.

From 8:30 a.m. to noon on Nov. 13, Morris Hylton III will moderate a symposium on “Tropical Modernism: Climate & Design,” which will include discussions about architecture in the tropics before and after air conditioning; how native design was appropriated by colonial powers and used in creating ideals of tropical modernism, how Jean Pouve’s Maison Tropicale was rescued from the Brazzaville jungle and moved to Paris and more.

The symposium will be held in the Ringling’s Historic Asolo Theater. Ringling is the weekend’s education partner.

Sarasota MOD Weekend

Talks, tours, parties and a symposium will be held Nov. 10-13 at various locations around Sarasota, including The Ringling, and home tours on Lido Shores. Ticket prices vary by event and weekend passes are available. For more details: architecturesarasota.org/mod-2022

Follow Jay Handelman on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Contact him at jay.handelman@heraldtribune.com. And please support local journalism by subscribing to the Herald-Tribune.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Iconic homes open for tours during 2022 Sarasota MOD Weekend