Florida’s Lieutenant Governor and the state’s new elections chief want the public’s help in selecting their favorite buildings in Florida. As Sascha Cordner reports, there’s a new launching an online voting competition to celebrate the state’s architectural structures.
It’s called the “Florida Architecture: 100 years. 100 Places. Competition.” It’s an online contest that highlights the best of Florida’s architecture, and with the help of residents, recognizes the best-looking buildings in the state.
“Some of those candidates include Disney’s Cinderella Castle, the Dalai Museum in St. Petersburg, the breakers in Palm Beach and Florida Southern College which has one of the world’s largest collection of Frank Lloyd Buildings. We also have universities, such as University of Tampa, University of North Florida, FSU, and FAMU. So, I think you will agree it’s going to be a great competition.”
Vicki Long is the Executive Vice President of the Florida Association of the American Institute of Architects, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary.
Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll applauded Florida’s architects, who helped select a little more than 100 buildings, that Floridians can choose from, to celebrate how architectural structures have shaped Florida.
“When mankind goes away, the architectural structures will remain behind to tell a story of that culture and civilization. As we kick off the 100th year anniversary, many Floridians will take a beautiful look at some of the state beautiful architectural structures.”
Carroll, along with Secretary of State Ken Detzner, made the announcement on the steps of the Old Historic Capitol building, which is one of the structures you can choose from in the online competition.
Detzner says the building is a symbol of Florida Government, and would have been torn down, had it not been for the efforts of one of his predecessors:
“Secretary of State Bruce Smathers had the foresight to see the value of this elegant structure and the determination to get it funded. I was telling someone earlier that when I first moved to Tallahassee, I had the privilege of actually working in this building in the small division of elections, and it was quite an honor to see the energy and excitement the tradition that occurred in this building.”
Anyone interested in ranking the nominated buildings can visit www.aiafla.org to learn more about casting their vote. Online voting began Tuesday, and will continue through April 6th. The results of the voting will be announced in April, which has been proclaimed “Architecture Month” by Governor Rick Scott.
