Arts & Culture Magazine - January/February 2008 - (Page 53) Architecture Issue 2008 TOTeMS, Inc. 1421 Boulevard of the Arts By Gayle Williams. Photos by Salvatore Brancifort. With “green” architecture all the rage these days, Todd Sweet, AIA, LEED AP, and Jerry Sparkman, AIA, the two principals of TOTeMS, Inc., would rather not carry that label. “As architects, we’ve always tried to be responsible and we make environmentally sensitive buildings,” says Sparkman. He paints a picture of placing value on architecture for historic significance and other values. “Buildings like the Parthenon, the Pyramids or even the old Herald Tribune Building on First Street were never designed to be, but are very green in their value to the community. We keep them around. We don’t tear down the Pyramids.” In fact, a shared interest in quality architecture of cultural value sans labels brought these two friends together to build a firm that, after five years, boosts a staff of nine and at least 20 projects underway, ten of them in the construction phase. Style labels are also anathema. “I don’t know what my style is and as long as I’m evolving and maturing my style is going to change,” says Sweet, who still gets strong reactions both praising and trashing the modernism of his Courthouse Centre on the corner of Main Street and 301 in downtown Sarasota. “I enjoy every project I work on. Not all clients are the same. Not all are modernists.” “We take a project on its own set of issues and what emerges is what that project should be about, whether it is this or that style is really irrelevant,” adds Sparkman. “If it’s good, it’ll speak its own story.” While TOTeMS is engaged in a diversity of projects, from private residences and commercial projects to civic buildings, there are three unique park structures in their body of work that clearly illustrate Sparkman’s point. A recently completed park shelter in Cape Coral sports triangular roof lines with a dynamic relationship to the asymmetrical barbecue pit fireplace. It is a colorful work of concrete and steel with a touch of whimsy that begs children to play in its shade. In Charlotte County’s Bayshore Live Oak Park, the new two-story pavilion and restroom building stands in another world. The land has a history rich with Calusa Indians and cattle exports, so they adopted an abstraction of primitive style with rough-hewn cedar and exposed steel connections to fit sensitively into the environment. Yet another set of issues faced their team when they took on the master planning of Cape Coral’s Sirenia Vista Park. After developers had torn up the peninsular waterfront property near a cove frequented by manatee, the city rescued the land for an environmental education park. The resulting education center and beautifully detailed elevated boardwalk touch as little of the land as possible. The recovery will be complete when, working with a landscape architect, they help restore the land to its original natural beauty. Clearly enjoying the process of experimentation and seeking challenging new projects, they hope TOTeMS never finds its niche. Says a smiling Sparkman, “That would just be too boring.” For more information on TOTeMS, Inc., call 941.952.0084 or visit www. totemsinc.com. Private residence, Sarasota. arts and culture magazine : : 53 http://www.totemsinc.com http://www.totemsinc.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.