Michael A. Gilkey, Inc.

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News from the Design Studio: July 2010

Casey Key Abbott Renovation Featured in SRQ

The Carl Abbott home we were recently fortunate enough to landscape was featured in the July issue of SRQ magazine . Following are excerpts from the article, entitled “Seaside Garden” by Abby Weingarten. The piece in its entirety can be read here.

Thanks to the vision of Sarasota landscape architect Michael A. Gilkey, Jr., a sunken garden in the front and a shelled private beach by the shore now flank the Carl Abbott-designed structure. The spring renovation has transformed unusable pathways and an overgrown mass of foliage into a sustainable green space on the barrier island. “I respect Carl Abbott’s designs, and he likes his yards to be in contrast with his houses,” Gilkey, vice president of the design-build firm Michael A. Gilkey Inc., says of the Sarasota modern architect. “This house is very sharp and angular and the vegetation is very loose—freeform.”

“It’s a kind of a dressed-up overgrown landscape now,” Gilkey says. “It pays homage to Carl Abbott’s vision but freshens it up. There’s a nice stark contrast of beautiful lush vegetation and a crisp white house.”

Outdoor Rooms: Custom Concession Residence

We were proud to be a part of this project in the Concession during its three year evolution. For this elegant home, built by Collingwood Construction and D & W Property Development, we were able to maintain a design that met the intent of the Concession criteria while achieving the aesthetic goals of our client and design team. This residence takes a classical approach to design, using clean lines to define spaces. The delineation of public and private space begins at a sequence of entries from the street to the front door. Michael A. Gilkey, Inc. designed the swimming pool, fountains, hardscape, and all landscape elements for this project.

Florida Wildflower Foundation Report

The Florida Wildflower Foundat ion Board of Directors held last month's meeting in beautiful Crystal Springs. The mission of this foundation is to enrich the lives of Floridians with Florida native wildflowers. At the meeting, we discussed goals for education, planting, research and outreach. Currently, approximately 14,000 Floridians have Florida Wildflower license tags on their vehicles. The money from these tags is used for funding of research, education and planting of wildflowers. Also at this meeting we approved the definition for a Florida Native Wildflower as: any flowering, herbaceous species or woody species with ornamental flowers which grew wild within the state's natural ecosystems in the 1560's (when Florida's first botanical records were created). The foundation also recognizes species that may have been introduced prior to the 1560's by Native Americans through trade and travel, species introduced to Florida without the aid of human intervention (e.g. tropical stporms), among others. Currently, the Foundation is pursuing grants from the Department of Agriculture, as wildflowers promote pollination. For more information or to become a member of the Florida Wildflower Foundation, please contact us.

2010 Aurora Awards

We at Michael A. Gilkey, Inc. would like to congratulate the 2010 Aurora Award winners! Our colleagues at Jonathan Parks Architect took home an Aurora for the Origami Loft House in the Green Construction category, and Josh Wynne Construction took home a Grand Aurora for best energy-efficient home: The Mission Valley Ranch. We were fortunate enough to be part of the design team for both of these projects. We also extend congratulations to our friends at Perrone Construction and Mills Design Group for their Aurora Awards. Job well done!

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