ABOUT
Architecture Sarasota stewards the legacy of the Sarasota School of Architecture and provides a forum for the education, advocacy and celebration of good design in the global built environment.
Architecture Sarasota unites the legacy vision of both SAF and CFAS. We invite you to join Architecture Sarasota as an Inaugural Member, to help launch this new era of the organization.
Architecture Sarasota is located in the restored Scott Building on South Orange Avenue. Between 2014 and 2015, the Center for Architecture Sarasota (one of Architecture Sarasota’s legacy organizations) restored and transformed the building into a museum-quality gallery and a lecture hall with state-of-the-art presentation technologies, as well as a design studio and office space.
In 1959, Clarence Scott commissioned architects William Rupp and Joseph Farrell to design a building that would serve as the new showroom for the Barkus Furniture Company. The building is a one-story commercial structure with a flat roof and open floor plan featuring a precast concrete structural system with terrazzo floors and exposed masonry, supports, and columns.
After the Barkus Furniture Company closed, the building was purchased by Sarasota County in 1999 and converted into a print shop. The building had fallen into disrepair when the newly-founded Center for Architecture Sarasota approached the county in 2013 with the idea of turning it into a usable gallery space. The county agreed and, with funding from major donor and architecture enthusiast Nathalie McCulloch, the renovation began. The renovated Scott Building reopened as the McCulloch Pavilion in October 2015.
Leadership at the Center for Architecture Sarasota partnered with the University of Florida School of Architecture, raised funds and underwent a sensitive adaptive reuse of the building led by Guy Peterson, FAIA, in consultation with Joseph Farrell.
THE ARCHITECTS
William Rupp and Joseph Farrell received Bachelor’s degrees in Architecture from the University of Florida and began their careers as assistant architects to Paul Rudolph. In 1959, Rupp and Farrell left Rudolph’s office and started a practice together as associated architects. Although their collaborative practice only lasted a little over two years, they earned national recognition and awards for projects such as the Uhr Residence-Studio in Sarasota and the Caladesi National Bank in Dunedin.
Joseph Farrell relocated to Hawaii in 1961 and spent most of his career designing buildings around the Pacific, receiving numerous national and international awards. Farrell became a Principal at Architects Hawaii Limited (now known as AHL) in 1969. His projects received over 40 design awards and honors, including the Governor of Hawaii’s Architectural Arts Award, which recognized architects who have produced projects that define “Hawaiian Architecture.” Farrell returned to Sarasota in his retirement and was an active member of the Center for Architecture and Architecture Sarasota before his passing in 2021.
William Rupp continued to practice in Florida until 1967, completing projects such as the dining pavilion for the Ringling Museum of Art and multiple residences in Naples and Sarasota. He moved his practice to New York and Massachusetts in the late 1960s and 1970s and spent his last years teaching as a professor of art and architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The legacies of Rupp and Farrell as masters in the Sarasota School of Architecture remain preserved in this building, one of the last remaining commercial or public projects in Sarasota designed by either of the architects.
ARCHITECTURE SARASOTA BOARD
Anne Essner, Board Chair
After receiving her MBA from Columbia University, Anne pursued a career in the pharmaceutical industry. Following her retirement, Anne has directed her energies towards various non-profit and philanthropic endeavors. She helped to facilitate the joining of Sarasota Architectural Foundation and Center for Architecture Sarasota into Architecture Sarasota and has since served as its board chair. She is a director of Gulf Coast Community Foundation. She and her husband, Bob, own and have restored two significant midcentury modern homes designed by Paul Rudolph. Prior to moving to Sarasota, Anne served on the Women’s Board of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia and was board chair of the Great Swamp Watershed Association, an environmental stewardship organization based in central New Jersey.
Ryan Perrone, Vice Chair
A native of Sarasota, Ryan Perrone is a General Contractor with an eye for details. His company, Nautilus Custom Homes, has been honored with various local, regional, and national awards, including AIA Florida’s 2022 Builder of The Year. As a second-generation Sarasota Luxury home builder, Ryan has been a champion of good design within his community for decades. Ryan joined Architecture Sarasota to increase awareness of the SSA and the benefits of good design. Ryan and his wife Brittany are proud parents to two baby boys, Luca and Nico.
Michael Bush, Treasurer
Michael Bush is the President of Home Resource Inc. the leading contemporary and modern furniture showroom on Florida’s West Coast. Michael held senior executive positions in Europe and the United States for Exxon Mobil and other smaller publicly traded companies. His specialty is start up and turn around environments and was a key executive in the creation of Mobil Chemical’s Global Petrochemical Operations.
He graduated from Michigan State in accounting and is a CPA. He has served on the boards of numerous non-profit and business associations in Sarasota. In addition to Architecture Sarasota, Michael is on the board of the Ringling Museum of Art.
Jeff Acker
Jeff is a real estate developer focused primarily on residential development and construction. He has been responsible for a wide range of residential projects in Southern California, Phoenix, Reno and Sarasota County.
Prior to becoming a real estate developer, Jeff was a licensed landscape architect working for a variety of architectural firms in Phoenix and Los Angeles. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and obtained his Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Illinois.
Carrie Cox
Carrie has held a number of senior leadership roles in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, and currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Organon, a leading women’s healthcare company, and SelectaBio, a clinical stage biotechnology company. She also serves on the boards of Texas Instruments and Cardinal Health. Carrie was named six times to Fortune Magazine’s list of “50 Most Powerful Women in Business”. She also serves on the Advisory Council for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater and leads the Director’s Council for the Penn Museum. Carrie is a pharmacist and received her degree at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy.
Katherine DeSousa
As an independent product designer, Katherine worked in many areas of home furnishings: however, the primary focus of her work was tableware, giftware and housewares. A noted crystal designer, she has worked with top international crystal companies. Her designs have been produced by Steuben Glass, Baccarat Crystal, Cristalleries du Val St. Lambert, Dansk, Lenox, Reed & Barton and others.
Educated in studio ceramics, Katherine started her career working for Professor Walter Gropius at The Architects Collaborative designing porcelain dinnerware for Rosenthal China. The Gropius TAC 02 teapot she designed has been in production for over 50 years. Education: Rhode Island School of Design, BFA, Cranbrook Academy of Art, MFA
David Zaccardelli
David Zaccardelli is a pharmaceutical executive with over 30 years experience leading new product development at both private and public companies.
He has served as President and CEO, and board member of Verona Pharma, Dova Pharmaceuticals, and Cempra. Previously, he served in several senior management roles at United Therapeutics Corporation, including Chief Operating Officer, Chief Manufacturing Officer and Executive Vice President, Pharmaceutical Development and Operations. Prior to United Therapeutics, he founded and led a start-up company focused on contract research positions and held a variety of clinical research positions at Burroughs Wellcome & Co, Glaxo Wellcome, and Bausch & Lomb Pharmaceutical. He received a Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Michigan.
