Architecture and Art

What does an Architect and an Artist have in common?  Art, design, painting, music and travel and sketching.  Plein Aire Cottage Artist Mary Rose Holmes and  architect husband Dwight have celebrated more than fifty years of wedded bliss.  During their frequent travels, a sketchbook and selection of pencils and pens can be found in their carry on bags.  Mary Rose also packs her oil paints.
While Mary Rose paints.  Dwight will sketch buildings.

Sketchpad

Dwight will sketch buildings.

Sketch by Dwight E Holmes

Recently  Sarasota Architectural Assoc.  honoured  award winning architect and resident of Indian Rocks Beach   Dwight E Holmes.
Holmes on  graduating  from Georgia Tech set his eyes on the Gulf Coast of Florida  and was hired by Mark Hampton
The Sarasota School of Architecture

The years: 1941 to 1966

The place: Sarasota, Florida

The story: 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, Mark Hampton, Victor Lundy, Gene Leedy, and Jack West among its practitioners, marks a high point in the development of regional modernism in American architecture.

In Europe after World War I, a startling new approach to architectural design emerged. The International style (or Bauhaus as it was known under the European school that taught it) turned its back on historic precedent and exploited the new materials and technologies of the day. Traditional decorative elements or references to past architectural styles were swept away, producing a minimalist architecture of flat-roofed buildings with smooth, unornamented walls and delicate, carefully proportioned facades.

While the Sarasota School found its inspiration in part from the philosophies of the Bauhaus, it incorporated forms of regional Southern architecture, using patios, verandas, modular construction and raised floors to open up its buildings for greater ventilation in pre-air conditioning days. The style added a play of light and shadow, and the color and texture of indigenous low maintenance materials, softening the cold machine aesthetic of the Bauhaus. This approach to design strengthened the connection between architecture and environment, allowing Sarasota School buildings to respect and blend well into their sites. The result was a regional modernism which blurred the distinction between the indoors and outdoors and accommodated the lifestyle and climate of southern Florida.

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"Sarasota in the 1950s was one of the most important places in the world for architectural creativity, where the greatest design movements of the day came together."

– Carl Abbott FAIA, original member of the Sarasota School of Architecture

 One of Holmes first projects was a home for his family in South Tampa.  Should it look familiar to you it has been featured in major magazines over the years and is often studied by architectural students.

Holmes has designed several homes in South Tampa. Buildings in Tampa, Sarasota and several schools and a Museum.

Many of his contracts have been sealed over dinner, when Dwight sketches an idea or building on a cocktail napkin.   

Architect Dwight Holesm &Sarasota Architectural Assoc Janet Minker

 

 

 Do you sketch?