===== No. 17: Palm Avenue Parking Garage, Sarasota =====

FLORIDA BUILDINGS I LOVE\\

1289 N. Palm Ave.; Jonathan Parks, AIA, architect\\

Harold Bubil Real Estate Editor Emeritus Sarasota Herald-Tribune USA TODAY NETWORK – FLORIDA\\

In the spirit of Miami Beach’s innovative parking structures, Sarasota’s Palm Avenue Parking Garage is a favorite of camera-pointing tourists because of its innovative cladding that looks like a group of sails.

Architect Jonathan Parks decided to make the sails out of aluminum, supplied by Mullet’s Aluminum Products of Sarasota. But it was up to Sarasota’s Karins Engineering Group to make it work.

John F. Bonacci, Ph.D, the firm’s di-
rector of structural engineering design, said Parks’ concept, which called for the sails to be installed as far from the side of the building as possible so as to obscure the mounting hardware, “a great artistic idea.”

Bonacci added, “We designed a series of mostly vertical aluminum trusses with brackets that hold the skin 2 feet to 8 feet outward from the structure.”

They are designed to withstand 130 mph winds. The building has won design awards from both architectural and engineering associations.

Parks also designed the space on the ground floor of the building now occupied by the restaurant Kojo.

“Florida Buildings I Love” is Harold Bubil’s homage to the Sunshine State’s built environment. This story originally ran March 25, 2017.

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