The Round Building’s brise-soleil was carefully preserved.

Posted on by Thor

On September 18th, I went down to the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts construction site to watch as the Round Buildings brise-soleil was removed. The round building was designed in 1963 by Orlando architects Bob Murphy and Frank Sheehy. The design was an exciting futuristic change from the usual cement and stucco monoliths that litter downtown. It sort of reminds me of Disney’s Carousel of Progress which first appeared at the 1964 New York World’s Fair.

The precast cement brise-soleil was designed to help shade the windows from the harsh Florida sun. The upper floors were added at a much later date. Commissioner Patty Sheehan was instrumental in the effort to have the unique brise-soleil preserved.  Each individual vertical section had to be reinforced by a steel structure to be sure it didn’t break apart when being transported. They could then be clipped free of the connecting bolts. I sketched for two hours and only one section was carefully removed in that time. Each section was then loaded onto a truck and transported to a city storage yard. Ironically the round building looked like it belonged next to the modern design of the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.

As of January 5th while forty plus same-sex couples got married at City Hall across the street, the round building looked like it had been hit by multiple bunker busting bombs. The cement shell had been removed and the rest of the building was collapsing in on itself. Someone stopped to admire my sketch in progress. He was the son of Jack Jennings, the local contractor who first built the Round Building. He asked to take a photo of my sketch to remember his fathers legacy. Niles M. Schweitzer Fellows held a design competition to find creative ways to reuse the preserved brise-soleil. There were some incredibly creative designs, but there are no funds to make any of them a reality. It is harder to create than to destroy. Who knows how long these cement sentinels will remain hidden in the city’s storage facility. I remains to be seen what the Next Round for these panels will be.

Round Building Fireside Chat

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Inside the Round Building, John Kaiser introduced a short film about the architect who designed the building which was erected in 1963. Early stages of the buildings construction were shown as well. There were audio technical difficulties which resulted in a Skype audio blazing over the architects audio. Out with the old and in with the new.

After the computer was rebooted, Jeff Stein appeared on the movie screen. He noted that his community was affected by hurricane Sandy and that a generator would have to suffice rather than a comfy fireside. His talk was about The Spirit of Organic Design, beyond Mid-Century Modern. 

Stein is an editor, writer and practicing architect. Formerly dean of
Boston Architectural College and head of architecture at Wentworth
Institute in Boston, he taught at Harvard Graduate School of Design;
Technicum Winterthur, Zurich; and at Ecole de Architecture
Languedoc-Rousillon, in Montpellier, France. He recently completed an
American edition of the Swiss text “The Ecological Aspects of Building”
with his wife, art historian Emilie Altemose. The Cosanti
Foundation, a non-profit educational foundation started by noted
architect and urban planner Paolo Soleri, is dedicated to education and
the ongoing development and preservation of Arcosanti in Arizona.

The primary focus of future architecture would be energy efficiency without urban sprawl. Cars tend to separate people in ways that are profound. People don’t recognize each other as they commute. People end up living isolated lives of hermits. Any sense of community is lost for many. Arcosanti is an urban laboratory focused on innovative design,
community, and environmental accountability. Our goal is to actively
pursue lean alternatives to urban sprawl based on Paolo Soleri’s theory
of compact city design, Arcology (architecture + ecology). Built by over 7,000 volunteers, Arcosanti provides various mixed-use
buildings and public spaces where people live, work, visit, and
participate in educational and cultural programs.

Tonight at 5:30PM I will be doing a digital sketch which will be  projected live on a movie screen as part of the Accidental Music Festival. The concert is titled “Ghost in the Machine”, and it features works from Central Florida Composers Forum presenting new works for electronics by Orlando composers. The concert will be held at the Timucua White House (200 South Summerlin Avenue).

Round Building

Posted on by Thor

The Round Building, also known as the American Federal Savings and Loan, across from City Hall, will stand for just one more year before is is demolished to make way for the Doctor Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. The building is still standing today because it is being used by the Doctor Phillips Center of the Performing Arts, Public Relations and Financing staff.  The top floor offices have a magnificent view over the construction site.

The building took form back in the idealistic times when John F. Kennedy was elected President. Man was striving to reach the moon and this building took on the futuristic form of a cylinder. Orlando was just coming of age, as Disney and Martin Marietta set up shop.  The honeycomb shaped cement band around the base of the building acted as a sun screen for the banks windows. This cement honeycomb, reminiscent of “The Carousel of Progress“, is known as a Brise Soleil. The glass upper floors were added years later. Today, what is futuristic about the site is that curbside electric car charging stations are across the street.

Commissioner Patty Sheehan is spearheading a privately funded effort to save the Brise Soleil by re-purposing it as sculpture or a sun shield in a public park. A design competition was held that asked local architecture students to envision the re-purposing of the precast concrete curtain pieces. The winners of the competition were, Felix Chad and Jarod Lopatky for their submission “Reflections of Orlando.” Their digital rendering showed the Brise Soleil in two pieces standing on end and separated as two identical semi circular arcs in a public park. The students were awarded $360 dollars for the concept.

Patty Sheehan formed the not-for-profit corporation, Strengthen Orlando, Inc. – Round Building Reuse, to raise funds to get the Brise Soleil moved and displayed somewhere in Orlando. She has pledged to match any donations made to the project up to $70,000.