Arts & Culture Magazine - January/February 2008 - (Page 56) “The overall influence of The ringling MuseuM was foreMosT in our Minds as we creaTed The inTerior concepTs of The hoTel.” butions—the circus’ winter headquarters, Saint Armands Circle, Ringling College of Art and Design, and the Ringling Museum of Art, which he donated to the people of Florida upon his death. Yet, his one dream of building a worldclass Ritz-Carlton Hotel was stopped dead in its tracks with the end of the Florida land boom and dawn of the Great Depression. The skeleton of the 250-room hotel stood silent for decades but for the scurrying of children in the ruins and late night bonfire parties as late as the 1960s, when it was finally razed to make room for new development. The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota, standing on the former site of another John Ringling hotel property, the El Vernona, stands as a torch bearer of the Ringling legacy in modern form. 56 : : arts and culture magazine Opened in late 2001 with thousands of locals streaming through its doors for a look at its fivestar extravagance nobly nods to its forbear with architectural detail. Mixing Spanish and Italian elements honoring the fanciful Mediterranean style of Addison Mizner, architect of the Florida resort style prevalent in Palm Beach of the 1920s, the Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota has a bright and airy ambiance with columns, cupolas and a barrel tile roof. “The overall influence of the Ringling Museum was foremost in our minds as we created the interior concepts of the hotel,” says lead designer Pamela Hughes. The patterned entryway features both Italian and Spanish marble in gold, green, terra cotta, khaki and soft ivory inlaid in a neoclassical design of circles, ovals and
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