Sanderling Beach Club | Sarasota Modern by Paul Rudolph

Designing his first commercial project in the early 1950s, Paul Rudolph looked at the site on the south end of Siesta Key, a barrier island on the Gulf of Mexico. When I visit Sanderling Beach Club, I imagine him as a young architect who just opened his own practice in Sarasota, Florida.

I see some of what Rudolph saw when he stood there: blue sky, the Gulf of Mexico, sand, seagrape and other tropical plants in a rather flat site.

Then I look at how the young architect reflected what he saw around him. He used curving roof lines to remind the viewer of the gentle waves of the nearby gulf. He opened the club house to nature with broad expanses of glass. He chose colors that spoke of sand and sky. Look at the blue ceilings framed in white.

At the time, Rudolph experimented with economical materials and came up with a method for bending plywood across the building space.

Sanderling Beach Club shows a light touch that contrasts with Rudolph's later work in the "brutalist" style. His Sarasota works show an architect in touch with the airy and relaxed nature of living in a Florida beach community.

Photo: Louis Wery