Architect Mark Sultana of DSDG at the groundbreaking ceremony for Infinity Longboat Key. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 12-3-2014.
Mark Sultana of DSDG Architects will lead a tour of the Sarasota Yacht Club from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at 1100 Ringling Blvd., Sarasota.
The event is presented by the Center for Architecture Sarasota. Admission is $10, with students admitted free.
Sultana and business partner Tom Denslow designed the building, which was completed in 2010.
Sultana recalled the selection process in a Herald-Tribune article at the time.
“We were shortlisted — one of three architectural firms to come up with a design for the club,” he said. The SYC leadership “gave us an eight-page program of the rooms and spaces they wanted, and the style they wanted. We had two weeks to come up with the design.
“We spent every waking minute of those two weeks working on the design. We came up with three-dimensional models on the computer, elevations, renderings and plans, and when we presented it, we got a standing ovation from the committee and the people who were judging us.”
The building is perhaps the most prominent example of what Sultana calls “coastal contemporary” architecture. It is valued for its open spaces. The entry foyer is a dramatic double-height space with a large compass rose inset into the floor.
“We chose a post-tensioned concrete slab to get maximum spans so that we have the least amount of columns throughout the space as we could possibly get,” said Sultana. “In the dining room, there are no columns. We free-spanned from the outside wall to the kitchen wall; the roof free-spans that whole space without limiting us by having a column in the middle.”
A major design element is the sail-like shades on the east side of the building. They shield windows from the sun and provide shade for outdoor activities, and glow at night.
