Saving Some of Sarasota’s Past

Sarasota has had some wins and some losses when it comes to saving part of what is uniquely Sarasota.

Currently Tampa is struggling with saving the Belleview Biltmore - a site listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Here we wonder about the fate of the Belle Haven. If it is saved, but moved, what will it look like and where will it be? Could it end up being jacked up on stilts above parking somewhere?

The newly announced Pineapple Square will undoubtedly result in changes to our downtown. Changes in scale, buildings, traffic patterns, light and air and many other aspects of downtown as we now know it.

Sarasota has two historic buildings - the Waterworks Building and the Times Buiding ( downtown) - that are in need of adaptive re-use. These unique buildings offer a great spaces that are in scale with the surrounding environment and keep important links to our past.

On the other hand we have recently lost the historic John Ringling Towers and the Bickel home which were located in downtown.

A city’s downtown is not just a place for commerce, it needs a wide variety of activities for many kinds of people. Sarasota’s downtown has changed and is continuing to change. Building residences downtown is a good idea - more people living downtown will bring diversity and enliven the area. However we continue to wonder how many people will actually live downtown (are speculators driving prices too high for year round residents?). Will our new downtown give us diversity and add to the unique character we have or will we be just another "anywhere, USA" with the same chain retailers we see everywhere.

The picture above shows Lillian Burns (daughter of Owen Burns - builder of this hotel) standing in the John Ringling Towers shortly before it was taken down. When you see the pretty renderings of our bright new world given to us by the developers, think about the reality of losing what is uniquely Sarasota. What will Sarasota become if we lose our past?

(Note: this picture was published in the Jan 2001 Issue of Sarasota Magazine. It was taken by photographer J.B. McCourtney and accompanied an article by Susan Burns).