hi and welcome to commissioners corner i'm vice mayor jen a her and cotch and i am taking this wonderful opportunity that i have been given as a commissioner to talk to you about and important decision that was made recently by the city commission this involves an historic iconic an architectural evaluable structure in our community the former selby library or the g was building as it's also known  commission decided to demolish the building as part of the overall project for the bed which is going to beyond sarasota is beautiful bayfront i voted against this decision and my decision is based on the fact that i'm a very thorough person when it comes to process and i believe that a decision of this magnitude that impacts the community to the extent that it does should be weighed carefully with the data with research with the communities input and with proper discussion part of that proper discussion is to look into the opportunity and the possibility of repurchasing such an i conic structure that process did not happen and i feel very strongly that that is a mistake a big mistake that we made we will be talking today with some amazing people in our community and we will try to give the gee whiz building or the former selby library building that proper process that it should have had and we will also talk about what we can do moving forward to make sure that this does not happen again i am joined today by carl abbot selma wilson and aaron know carl abbott is a fellow of the american institute of architects and the youngest member of the original sarasota school of architecture after receiving his bachelor's degree from the university of florida carl earned his master's degree at yale under the renowned paul rudolf after graduating he worked for norman foster at team four in london and then for the office of l and pe in new york city before founding his own practice here in sarasota in one thousand nine hundred sixty six in the book that carl wrote called informed by the land architect michael sorkin wrote of karl abbott's were at work project after project delivers on the modernist idea of a lighting inside and out creating the illusion of the natural flowing the created a richly compact journeying in which spaces move to arrive at moments of expansiveness and relaxation both my quote that i preferred was by yale classmate lord richard rodgers who said karl has a unique understanding of what architecture is about and how an international style can develop a strong regional character his buildings are sensitive to context a spare poetry without ever becoming austere and have a unique beauty the result is buildings that are works of art and that quote will come in later as we talk about the gee whiz building i'm also joined by selma coker wilson who describes herself as an architect with a diverse multicultural background she revels in complicated projects solving problems interacting with people creating satisfied clients and building buildings her particular expertise is in performance buildings she has a master's degree in architecture having studied in turkey and england and worked all over the world including in tokyo london and now in sarasota locally she has worked on the van ways and the sarasota high school building welcome and my next guest is erin to fazio originally from upstate new york aaron spent her childhood house hunting and red house beautiful alongside nancy drew a career that began with writing and editing for a publisher of an architectural trade magazine eventually led to helping run a contracting company that specialize in historic restoration and custom design in connecticut that labor of love grew and she began purchasing and restoring homes for customers as a person as personal investments erin moved her family to sarasota in april of two thousand and fifteen having fallen in love with its tropical mid century charm now a licensed realtor she has dedicated herself to helping home homeowners preserve the historic building and vironment unique to the gulf coast air and also serves on historic preservation committee and on the board of the sarasota alliance of historic preservation welcome erin and thank you all for being here and taking part in this discussion i would first like to  start the discussion with this a little bit of discussion about the g was building and the potential of repurchasing it that was one of the biggest talking points was that the building was in bad shape and that it couldn't be repurposed that that piece of land needed to be opened up that it was subject to climate change and for a variety of reasons it was stated that the building needs to be demolished part of the process that we think is very important is that the building be given the proper process so that we look at the pros and the cons the actual ability to save and repurpose the building what that would cost what that would do to the timeline is it fees is it feasible is it reasonable and then we have the discussion and we let the community make that decision so so me you worked on a potential idea for the purpose in the building do you think you could walk us through that sure i think what i want to explain is we also listened to the discussions that were happening at the time in terms of the restrictions that the decision makers felt they were under you know to decide one way or another and as an architect it's part of our training to have a design brief to know what you're trying to solve you have to first understand the problem in order to solve it well so and we felt that the problem wasn't defined and that was part of the issue so i did actually go to the various decision makers and asked them what was important to them about the site and about the building  come up with a solution so in our re in my or our group's repurposing proposal which is one of many possibilities we try to address these issues that were given to us as the problem and one of the strategies we followed was to open up the ground floor of this building it's a two story building with medicine in on the second floor so it's not a full second floor and the reason for this was because we were told that the building is in the retreat for the city which means that over fifty plus years that area of the city might be more prone to flooding than it is so our goal was to reduce any damage that would happen to the building so the strategy was to open up the building and we looked at the code as to how this could be done and there are criteria of how much you open up building in order for it not to cause any structural damage in case of hurricane wind so our strategy was based on that and we looked at what the bayfront planning organization had envisaged in terms of activities for their ia and we wanted to make sure all of that could happen in the building and we were all told that the budget was tight so we also took that as a criteria so as part of a procedure we felt that we first have to look at the building the existing building is it it for it purpose can it be made to fit for a different purpose how can we repurpose it so that we can save it and we can meet all the criteria that was given to us so we we did a  little also as an architect of course we imagine many things in our heads and we can see three dimensional spaces but not everybody can do that so i thought it was very important to prepare this animation so that people don't have to imagine they can actually see what we have imagined so it was a collaborative effort to come up with how to repurpose so the way we saw this building and this park is with a curious shape structure which is like a puzzle that you walk through children love running through it then try to understand its german tree as they play hide and seek shelter sure let me just you that is very very important this is where children would climb the stairs to a world of art science music and fun the shade structure is that the conversion of the paths in the park it's where you go you walk through the building each frame comes as a surprise you focus on a detail you had not noticed before it is not an impediment it's a vehicle to see better and see more this roof provides cover as your class examines the next samples collected from the bay it is where you can hold a youth music workshop upstairs with views of the bay the central trellis roof brings light and creates a who call to god when you walk through examining the crop of the season this is an open air structure providing shade it is also an enclosed structure where needed to provide protection and function it does not need it is it does not need to be created a new its already there ready to be used you come here again and again because you are not in an ordinary space nor in an ordinary park you will come again because there is something to discover every time you come and this is what we thought was important about this building that it's johm a tree enabled you to see things in a different way and it was education oh even as a structure and by moving through the building more freely than how we do now we thought that we would be adding something to the bayfront planning going ization is a kind of overview vision so just talk to me a little bit about the geometry or maybe coral can talk or one of you can talk to me about the geometry of it talk to me about the architect and about the field theory because that's a really important piece of this building's value is a serious theory that water nash did basically on triangular fours and it can get very complex but it basically that but i think what's really significant this building was done almost exactly the same time by the same architect good morning merrill as the air force academy which is a national monument that building and this is a brother of that building and we've got it here in sarasota is a very significant building so one of the things that  that you know came to light for me was that often we have when you have these architecture significant buildings that there are often private residences and that one of the special things about this building is that it's a humbling experience which makes it even more s and if i could talk just a minute i am an architect i'm a planner of target number major universities planning and architecture and so i think i see this in a way not the i've got a good background to see this i feel and i i've been a resident of sarasota for over fifty years and i was here before that building was there my kids love the buildings my sons and my grandson loved sons loved it when as you wish so i can use the building and i know the building i just got back a few weeks ago from washington and new york where i was involved in architectural symposiums and sarasota is known as the city of our significant architecture and here we are destroying one of our most significant buildings by a major architectural firm this recognized all around the country and kno around the world so it's terribly upsetting i'm not a person who says you save every building because it's old and had significant things or people be there if it's a significant building it's a whole different thing and this is a major building of we have a building up a new college by him pay one of the world's great architects and that building not long ago went to the same process when they were talking about tearing it down as a fifty year old building and they did i evaluation report to find out if the building should be removed kept the risk restored reevaluated rework and they paid for the rule of port they decided to keep it this is all we've been asking is for the city to do a report because the we've talked with in the building say no i did not write that i didn't want my name included in that report because that's not what i said i was brought to the building to talk about what it would cost to restore the building and there were talks talked about they were told the building did not feet meet famous which means a figure should be greatly inflated not we found i went to city hall and found out that building does meet fema which is not what the report's been constantly saying from the bay group and now they are not saying that they're now saying sea rise but before they used to say fema well it does meet fema by the city's own liability insurance flood insurance for the building so that's one of the thing the report also  says the community voted against the building the community did not vote against the building it did not say in it because i was each of the meetings here in sarasota each time they had a group of meetings i was at one of the meetings and the first plan showed vande ways all an orgy was still be on it the next time i was gone not even next couple of months later it was totally off and i asked gene afford one of the heads from society why is that missing that in the meeting and before and after the meeting she said because nobody wants that nobody no one once asked did they want to and the only thing they ever said in one of the later things was anybody in they had t but they never even asked would you even consider only reports that they ever say would you like to see the gee we're saved would you like to see the g was removed do you care never a question like that so to say the community doesn't want the building is totally unfair it was never asked right and you know a lot of things that you're saying really resonate and i just wanted to establish here that we do have a letter from robert b distinguished professor emeritus of art history architecture urban planning from the university of chicago chicago really advocating against the demolition of the building and for its architectural value talking a lot about the the architect and this is just one of a number of of letters that we have from a variety of architects and architectural organizations actually he's used one of the eminent scholars on wall tonight a shrew who sees i think many in sarasota didn't initially including some of us realize the the kind of history the architectural design history of the building and robert was is an expert in all of his buildings and so was able to and this letter does explain kind of connect the lineage of why this building is particularly important and he was he was in awe of the building when we toured it and i think one of the important things that i wanted to talk about as well was that when the building was built i have an article here that was written by charlie husking and he talked about the building as a working work of art and i've been learning a lot going through all of this and i think that is one of the one of the elements that makes the building so special not only its architectural value but it's actually a building that functions  now the building has iconic and cultural status but it also has historical status i would like to hear from me in a little bit about your the i know that we had i received letters from the historic preservation advisory  preservation advisory board from the historical society of sarasota county from art professors and historians from the center of architecture from the sarasota architectural foundation  and from a variety of architects including new car and parks but from the historical side of it can you just speak to that a little bit one of the concerns and preservation is the historic context of the building and one of the unique things about this building is that it was really created built by the community the community was involved in the entire funding process of the building so  essentially they raised there was a group of volunteers that raised every penny required to build this building and then they gave it to the city and so the community was involved in raising the funds they were involved in selecting the architect or the  design firm and they selected the site you know and they wanted this building to be representative of what sarasota is as a as an architectural city and to compliment the van ways all and to embrace the bay and really you know the community having been so involved in creating this building it has tremendous significance and history here so i think you know that a lot of the community may not be aware because we are more recent residents who have come into town but this was really something that meant very much to the city and i feel that their voice has not been heard yet i went to i came my family came here to sarasota we moved to florida when i was very little and when we came to sarasota when i was about six years old so you know i feel like a native of sears so that i went to high school here and this was my library in high school so you know i'm here as a vice mayor city commissioner but also for me this also has that personal element to it has that iconic element to it it was a my library i remember walking in i remember seeing that staircase i remember seeing the that those big stacks of books and then being able to go to that corner because he you know part of the field theory is you take a rectangle or a top a zoid and then you just rotate it and you create these little triangular spaces that are so special now you know as a high school student to remember a building like that and to have such fond memories that says a lot about a building so not only is it a working work of art but it's also iconic historically valuable a lot of the reasons so these are these are very valid reasons these are expert opinions about why the buildings should be safe there are motional opinion like cultural historical but some of the reasons that were given that it needed to be demolished were that  open space are you confident that the building footprint would still allow for open space on that area so absolutely because you're going to be using the buildings footprint as part of your open open space facility so by by doing that it's not it's not a barrier because just like if you had a huge tent structure in a park right that or a bandstand in a park it's not really an impediment it's part of the park it's just a shade yeah it's shade and protection and it's actually i mean the park we presume would need a restroom so this already has a restroom in it for example so it's already kind of ready to be used as part of a park facility so so you feel confident that the building is safe and secure structurally sound it can withhold sea level rise and climate change it can serve a purpose a shade purpose and a community gathering purpose that it you know what it was touted as mold infested and rat infested and none of that is true i toured the building myself  and it was to be applauded clearly but but the other thing is we're really concerned we understood that the city process has not been even followed properly on saying demolish the building and you moral mobo thoughts and all but there's a procedure you're supposed to go through with the public building that's not been done let's talk about that we only have a little bit of time left and i want to know it's really important we get through the process and what happened and what we can do in the future i think one of the  biggest things is in the code in the city's own code it requires them to anyone it requires anyone seeking a demolition permit to take measures to avoid minimize or mitigate the adverse effects of demolition and to undertake all reasonable measures to save the building on site and none of that was done and this is the code and this is the code this is what is expected of a homeowner if they come in and say i'd like to demolish this building and there's also i think an issue of an inherent conflict of interest because one of the the historic preservation board of the city has an advisory board to the commission has been trying to express their concern about the potential demolition of this building and they're only avenue for seeking advice is turning to the city staff and unfortunately that's like turning to the building owner who wants it gone you know how should we best approach this and so that's a conflict of interest and it's not surveying it's not allowing the board to properly serve the community and the board is made up of professional architects planners and professional gars who are on the city historical preservation board they volunteer your time and they have voted three times over the last three years for this bill to be saved they said it is a significant architectural building this part of our legacy it should be preserved that they're linked to the city just as you said has not carried through and i think one of the sisters bizarre i don't want to cut you off but i think one of the things this is that the building should be preserved but also take that building because it was built as a library right it was turned into a road purposed into science building for the public and now let's repurpose it again to make it fit its new space like that we're not you work with what you have in order to make it a political to our current time and that's that's how we keep our buildings by make making it relevant to us now and by ignoring it and leaving it empty you don't give that building opportunity to become relevant to the community and that's why i think a lot of people did not know about the building they didn't even know where it was because it had been ignored and walk across as a good architect and planner when you travel around the world you wan see what's happened in a place the cerise knesset you gain in a city certainly london paris the city we're going to be a city if we knock out our history it's a really sad it's killing part of what we're here for so we need a legacy and protect our legacy terribly important and this is only a tiny part of that fifty acre site a tiny and we're told at one of the city commissioners the group would now have money to go and get volunteers if we don't tear down the building which is really bizarre i mean who would want to pay money for the big park if they're being misled so it's a bizarre though a lot of inconsistent she's right i wanted to speak about what you just said know i spoke with several architects about this building and one local very well known architect said to me you don't go to rome to visit a c v s nothing against c v s but you don't go to rome to visit a c v s and we are becoming a city this building is a legacy building and this project that we're embarking on is going to be a legacy project for the future generations and my fear is that and the reason why i wanted to do this on this building was that if we do this lose this building i want future generations to know that there were many people in this community who wanted to repurpose that building and keep it for the community to have  relish in and enjoy its beauty and when we were talking about the community and put you all have a petition it's like right because we were told that nobody was interested to hear the building and we were not sure that was true so we started a petition on change dot org and it was just started in october august august so it's been a couple months and there's over sixteen hundred signatures  and that petition is not even just to save the building it's to get a proper facilities report to exactly so that the correct decision can be made exactly and we believe that the procedure is the most important thing is for the city moving forward if there are good procedures we will make healthy decisions and yes they recognize procedure with removing a public building is to go to facilities evaluation report by an independent party and our group came up with half of the cost to cover that report so it was a win win for everybody and actually when we were looking at the adaptive reuse we did contact the original architects and so  and the engineers of the build to test our idea against its viability so they are out there the information is there it needs to we feel it really needs to be evaluated properly and i think one thing we talked about repurposing and this came up in one of the commission meetings about adaptive reuse and we felt that there is maybe a lack of understanding about what that is how it's done and there's almost a black and white image in people's minds about you either preserve the building as this or you demolish it and that's not the case it's not washington or new york i mean this is done all the time retrofitting buildings it's the national treasure been able to do good but what so much as usual right on there too many things in question right now why was it not a full report done why we voted not to at least get a full report when we came up with our group here but i have the money i mean what's going on if your neighbors involved with somehow wanting to keep the land then fine tell the city that but don't do something that's dishonest and behind everyone's bought the building is significant i don't care what anyone says and you've got building repurposed or at least look into the potential of exactly what are the costs what are the realities are exactly and what does that mean thank you all very much i sorry we could probably talk for a very long time about this us very much and i really appreciate your time and all of your efforts moving forward there is a petition and that petition information is going to be put on the screen also if you would like to contact the city manager or the deputy city manager or any of the commissioner that information will be put up on the screen as well thank you very much and have a wonderful