Sarasota MOD
Celebrates Island Resident
TIM SEIBERT
Boca Grande resident Edward “Tim” Seibert’s lifetime
achievement in architecture will be the focus of
Sarasota MOD Weekend November 10-12, sponsored
by the Sarasota Architectural Foundation. The fête,
which will feature lectures, discussions, exhibitions, and parties,
as well as walking and trolley tours, coincides with Seibert’s
90th birthday.
The two previous MOD honorees were architects Paul
Rudolph and Victor Lundy, internationally-known innovators
who won acclaim for Sarasota as ground zero for midcentury
modern architecture.
“Paul Rudolph and Victor Lundy are considered the top
notch architects of the Sarasota School of Architecture,”
said historian Jeff LaHurd, "but I would put Tim Seibert right
up there with them. If you look at what he’s done, at the
amount of work he’s done ... to me, he ranks with them.”
“Tim Seibert is an excellent architect in his own right, but
his reputation is enhanced by his ability to speak about architecture,”
added architecture critic Harold Bubil. “While
Rudolph and Lundy taught by example, they did not have
28 GASPARILLA ISLAND November/December 2017
contact with the general public. In his role
as ‘an elder statesman’ for architecture for
this town for 40 or 50 years, he has
educated a lot of people about what
architecture is, what modern architecture
By Mary Bess
Cooney House, St. Armand's Circle,
Lido Key, Florida. Completion date: 1965
Designed on a strict budget on a narrow 50
foot wide lot in an established neighborhood
for an attorney, his wife and two children, the
Cooney House offers a quiet elegance
achieved through ordinary materials and
simple construction.
Straight line simplicity flows through the
plan providing a central pavilion (for living and
entertaining) and two bedroom suites (one
contiguous with a small courtyard and the
other with the kitchen and sitting room). The
openness of the central glass pavilion and
porch holds in balance the privacy of the two
bedroom wings.
Awards received: Test Of Time Award (25
Years), AIA Florida, 2001