Riverview High School

Riverview High School. . Side 1 , Riverview High School originally consisted of modern steel and glass structures set among tall native pines in Sarasota's developing suburbs. When the school opened in 1958, it became known internationally for its innovative architecture, combining the latest in educational ideas, building technologies, and regional adaptations to the southwest Florida climate., A pressing need for new school facilities accompanied the great post-World War II migration to Sarasota. The Board of Public Instruction led by Philip Hiss, a progressive developer and architectural patron, responded with a series of eight public schools characterized by open, flexible designs for natural light and breeze. Riverview High School, the largest of these new schools, brought together 1000 students from a wide geographical area. With its distinctive design, the school helped define and contribute to the sense of community that developed in the new Sarasota suburbs. The original structures, much altered over time, were demolished in 2009 to make way for a school that could accommodate new educational requirements. , (Continued on other side), Side 2 , (Continued from other side) , Paul Rudolph, a leading American architect of the Twentieth Century, began his career working in Sarasota in the 1940s. He brought international acclaim to the area with his innovative adaptation of modern architecture for Sarasota's subtropical climate., Riverview High School advanced Rudolph's ideas on an institutional scale, featuring open indoor-outdoor spaces with sliding glass walls and visual patterning of concrete sunshades. The school's primary community space was a large courtyard, surrounded by colonnades and classrooms. This gathering area was designed with historical academic cloisters in mind, giving new form to an ancient type of planning., From 1952, Rudolph practiced independently and quickly rose in the architectural establishment. He accepted an appointment to lead the architecture school at Yale in 1957, the same year he designed Riverview High School. Rudolph influenced younger colleagues in Sarasota, a remarkable group of designers that collectively became known as the Sarasota School of Architecture. . This historical marker was erected in 2011 by Sarasota County Historical Commission. It is in Sarasota in Sarasota County Florida