This panel discussion highlights the work of Architecture Sarasota, an organization dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Sarasota School of Architecture in Southwest Florida and their collaboration with the National Park Service. After a series of storms impacted architectural significant properties in 2024, the organization began documenting and evaluating climate vulnerabilities. One novel aspect of this work was the creation of an exhibition to educate and engage the public on significance, risk, and potential adaptation. Historic sites and cultural landscapes serve as early indicators of environmental stress. Creative practitioners are redefining preservation and emergency response by pairing tradition with adaptive solutions.
Architecture Sarasota has been at the forefront of this effort. They have been documenting at risk heritage, elevating community memory, and demonstrating how legacy architecture can evolve rather than vanish. Responding to the combined storms of Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton in 2024, the organization in collaboration with the NPS’s National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, and state and local partners, developed a model approach that integrated cultural resources survey and vulnerability assessment. Under the National Disaster Recovery Framework, the Department of the Interior assisted in identifying this project as part of Florida's disaster recovery plan as an important step in understanding the risks and unmet needs for architectural resources in damaged areas throughout the state. In addition to reports and recommendations, the work included the creation of a climate vulnerability exhibition to engage the public. The art exhibit featured historic sites and proposed solutions to give a visual interpretation to the assessment and risk data points.
Architectural Sarasota and the NPS have crafted a unique work product that seeks to frame climate risk not as a distant hazard but as a design problem that invites curiosity, imagination, and new forms of collective stewardship.
