SQR Home of the Year Platinum for Architecture Prof
TAMPA, Fla. (April 1, 2009) – University of South Florida School of Architecture and Community Design students are fortunate to be able to study with SRQ Home of the Year Platinum Award recipient Michael Halflants, a principal in Halflants + Pichette Architects, a modern architecture studio located in Sarasota. Together with landscape architect David W. Young, the firm was also the recipient of the Gold Award in the outdoor space category. As a result, their work is illustrated throughout the “Home of the Year” issue of SRQ Magazine.
Independent architects from New York and Tampa reviewed submittals of area design firms to determine the award recipients. The same residence is also featured in an eight-page spread and on the cover of the 2009 LUX Magazine, the gulf coast luxury sourcebook.
At USF, Halflants teaches graduate design studios and the tropical architecture course.
“I put the principles I teach in my courses to work in my designs,” said Halflants. “It is extremely gratifying when your peers choose to honor your work with awards. This kind of recognition also serves to encourage us to stay true to our vision and philosophy to find inspiration in the constraints of the project, not to force preconceived ideas on clients or their environments.”
Halflants’ students, as well as those enrolled in the undergraduate program, are also an inspiration to him. Many of them have their work on display in the student gallery section of the School of Architecture and Community Design Web site at http://www.arch.usf.edu/students/gallery.
“Our students are being taught by the professionals in the program to think boldly and responsibly,” Halflants said. “What you see in their work challenges assumptions. In essence we’re sharing the experience of learning more and more about design every day, and I find that exciting.”
The University of South Florida is one of the nation's top 63 public research universities and one of 39 community-engaged, four-year public universities as designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. USF was awarded more than $360 million in research contracts and grants in FY 2007/2008. The university offers 219 degree programs at the undergraduate, graduate, specialist and doctoral levels, including the doctor of medicine. The university has a $1.8 billion annual budget, an annual economic impact of $3.2 billion, and serves more than 46,000 students on institutions/campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota-Manatee and Lakeland. USF is a member of the Big East Athletic Conference.
-USF
Barbara Melendez
News Coordinator
University Communications & Marketing
813-974-4563
bmelendez@admin.usf.edu
