A delightful moment with Tim Seibert before his talk at the Hiss House.
SarasotaMOD week, 2016. Photo by Lynn Seibert.
Timothy J. Seibert, the architect of Wildewood Springs and Spring Lakes, has died at age 91. He was one of the founding members of the Sarasota School of Architecture.
The Sarasota School architecture is characterized by its adaptation of modern architecture to the Florida climate—large sunshades, natural ventilation systems, full height sliding glass doors, single depth floor plans (no corridors), and walls of jalousie windows.
The Sarasota School architecture is characterized by its adaptation of modern architecture to the Florida climate—large sunshades, natural ventilation systems, full height sliding glass doors, single depth floor plans (no corridors), and walls of jalousie windows.
Inflected by local climate, construction practices, regional culture, and Florida life-style, the work of the Sarasota School of Architecture founded by Ralph Twitchell and counting Paul Rudolph, Edward "Tim" Seibert, Mark Hampton, Victor Lundy, Gene Leedy, Jack West and Carl Abbott among its practitioners, marks a high point in the development of regional modernism in American architecture. - Sarasota Architectural FoundationI had the opportunity to meet and talk to Tim about Wildewood Springs before a talk held in the Hiss House in Lido Shores. What a delight! It ignited my curiosity and interest to learn more about our hidden jewel, Wildewood Springs. I shared what I learned with neighbors at Board meetings.
I am deeply grateful for Tim's art and to live in a building designed by him.
I treasure his vision to create dwellings that worked with the habitat—to build under the tree canopy of mostly slash pine, sabal palms, and Southern Live Oak trees.
I am grateful for Tim's friendship with Paul Neal (senior) and that they cared about this extraordinary Florida habitat. Together they measured distances from the stately oak trees for the site plan to make room for both the trees and buildings. It was rare, and mostly still is rare, to not clearcut the land.
Because Tim and Paul protected the habitat, our community is an Audubon Wildlife-Certified area. It is a privilege to share this neighborhood with a wealth of wildlife diversity.
As a year-round resident, I appreciate the simplicity in his design and one that accentuates living outdoors. The sunrise and sunset light quality continues to delight us. In mid-summer, I see his thoughtfulness in creating a design that softens the bright light and oppressive heat. In our unit, we do not have window coverings because the design allows this. We can open the doors at night on two walls. As if camping out, we see the trees, hear the owls, and sometimes, some pretty loud frogs courting.
I am grateful to Janet Minker, past chair of the Sarasota Architecture Foundation (SAF), and her dynamic and tireless effort to educate our community about Sarasota School's architects and their contributions.
Janet also helped our Association's Board connect with Tim Seibert and his firm, Seibert Architects, now led by Sam Holladay. Without Tim's help, we would not have received Sam's recommendations to Wildewood Springs and Spring Lakes for mid-century modern replacements when needed. Because of Tim, Sam agreed to work with Terry Barrett and the WWIIA Board's committee. Sam gave our Association over $4,000 in-kind services, making site visits and creating THIS LIST of specs, which has been shared with Wildewood Springs and posted here on this blog. So, if anyone asks if someone has talked to the original architect for replacement recommendations compatible with the architecture (a question we asked when we moved here), the answer is yes.
I am grateful that the recommendations are available so that if residents so choose, they have the information they need.
I am grateful to several neighbors (Rosalie Weiss and Martie Lieberman, to name two) who live or have lived in Wildewood and are long-time contributors and volunteers with the SAF. They connected many of us with other Sarasota School enthusiasts, such as Christopher Wilson, architecture historian at Ringling College, to celebrate the work of Tim Seibert.
