Presenting

Building Carl Abbott How do you see architecture evolving today? By Barry Stein Carl Abbott's career has been well documented, including his early schooling at the University of Florida, and his graduate education at Yale. His mentors include Paul Rudolph, his professor at Yale, considered the founding father of the Sarasota School of Architecture. Abott has left his simple elegant mark in Florida, and the Caribbean, and in the minds of students at a variety of universities, including Harvard Graduate School of Design and Yale University. His local work includes, the Dolphin House on Siesta Key, the Summerhouse restaurant, the St. Thomas More Complex, the Woman's Resource Center and the Pine View School, Osprey. Guided by the movement he helped to create, he applies the principles of the Sarasota School of Architecture, to integrate elements of man-made structure with natural landscapes. Carl Abbott's design philosophy begins with a natural mix of Bauhaus Design and the beliefs of Frank Lloyd Wright. Bauhaus Building Germany The Bauhaus School seeks to incorporate art, craft and technology to produce a natural relationship between elements, while benefiting from the features of industrial design and man-made materials. Frank Lloyd Wright believed in organic architecture, right down to the smallest detail. Wright's objective was to design structures that were in harmony with humanity and its environment. The Sarasota School and Abbott combine the design principles of Bauhaus and Wright, with the consideration of climate and terrain. Fallingwater, 1935, Frank Lloyd Wright Similarly to Frank Lloyd Wright, Abbott appreciates the organic beauty of the environment, thoughtfully combining it with the cutting edge functional materials, to demonstrate the essential truth of the Sarasota School of Architecture. In Carl Abbott's perspective, everything has to be considered. His awareness goes beyond the plot of land that's to be built on, as he surveys the surrounding roads and topography. He studies aerial photographs, county maps and explores the surrounding environment, with the help of Google Earth. Carl Abbott imagines the view outside the bedroom window on the top floor, even before the first hole is dug. Guided by the client's needs and what forms function best, Carl Abbott applies the two most fundamental principles of design. When a Carl Abbott building gets raised, we marvel at all the detail and are confounded by how the complex has been made to look simple and in perfect harmony with nature. 22 | FLORIDA HOMES MAGAZINE When the camera was invented, everyone said well, there is no point in painting anymore. But in reality it opened a whole new world. When modern architecture was introduced, people were saying these new materials are going to kill architecture. In the early 1900s, when new materials started to emerge, large sheets of glass, concrete slabs, steel, etc… Architects were frantic, doing Neo-Gothic, Neo-Egyptian, neo-everything. Then the engineers and the people at the Bauhaus said, no, let's use these materials, and that changed everything, which in turn paved the way for Frank Lloyd Wright's Organic School, and what we now define as modern architecture. Wright and the Bauhaus were both very influenced by each other's work, they learned a great deal from each other. Wright focused on everything coming from the earth, while the Bauhaus separated the earth from the building. The Sarasota School of Architecture melded the two concepts together. In fact, only in Sarasota and Los Angeles did this melding of ideas foster. Between the two, the Bauhaus School and Frank Lloyd Wright's Organic School, my work certainly leans towards the Organic School. So as to your question, where architecture can go from here, I do see a potential problem in the classrooms. Today, I see students relying so much on computers. Their studies of buildings are often things that you could only do with a computer. While technology has opened a new world, has it made us lazy? Archtiecture is becoming more generic in America. I call it the Disneyesque of architecture. How do you see it? I am surprised by what so many people, who could afford to live in any home they wanted, pick. They choose something that is totally nostalgic, that has nothing to do with the world today. It is almost like they want to live like Alice in Wonderland. It's an unreal world they are trying to escape into, this Never Neverland. Some people say modern architecture is too slick and cold. Modern architecture can be as warm as you want it to be. Some of Wright's buildings are amazing, they are almost too warm and fuzzy. Modern architecture has an enormous range, it can be based on nature, on environmental concerns, on the computer, on technology, based on color, on shapes, it is endless, totally endless. Saying modern architecture is sterile and

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