Hoffman Architects

ARCHITECTURE LEADERS TODAY

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Hoffman Architects LOCAL AND DIVERSE Providing beautiful and sustainable solutions, Hoffman Architects has a design portfolio that is as local as it is diverse and emphasizes modern architecture with a sense of culture and place.

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The design portfolio of Hoffman Architects is as local as it is diverse emphasizing modern architecture with a sense of culture and place.

by Joan Tupponce

A native of Tarpon Springs, Fla., Edward C. Hoffman Jr. founded his firm, Hoffman Architects, in his home town in 1981. By always providing beautiful, sustainable solutions to every project that enters the doorway, the firm has experienced steady growth and success ever since.

“We have an excellent history of meeting program parameters, schedules and budgets and receiving awards for our work,” Hoffman said. “Our real success, however, is the measure of quality in our relationships with the people work with and employ.”

As a businessman, Hoffman has always valued a diverse portfolio. The company’s projects include educational, health care, religious, residential, 2 Architecture Leaders Today

RIGHT TOP & BOTTOM: Jacobson Culinary Arts Academy at Tarpon Springs High School, Tarpon Springs, Fla. To carve out its own unique niche among Pinellas County high schools, Tarpon Springs High School several years ago embarked on an aggressive program to attract students interested in the culinary arts. The school is recognized as one of the premier high schools teaching restaurant science and the culinary arts. They set an ambitious goal to increase student enrollment in the Family and Consumer Science Department to 500 students to meet student demand and this would outstrip the capabilities of the existing cafeteria used as a culinary facility, making the construction of a new, state-of-the-art Culinary Arts Academy a necessity. This academy would be able to service all students in Pinellas County.

The facility is an 11,600 sq. ft. freestanding addition to the Tarpon Springs High School campus. The culinary school will maintain a 120 person dining room, a dining room kitchen, a kitchen and bakery, a 50 person Presentation/lecture room, and additional service spaces.

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commercial, preservation and environmental education centers.

Services range from master planning and site and schematic design to rendering and graphic design and construction management.

One of the company’s first projects was the Historic Sponge Exchange in Tarpon Springs, the sponge capital of the world. The sponge industry in Tarpon Springs generates millions of dollars every year. The Historic Sponge Exchange is an ever-present tourist attraction, featuring a vast assortment of boutiques and restaurants with a village feel in the Hellenic style. The $1.5 million job served as a fantastic launch pad for Hoffman Architects’ continuing success.

Hoffman quickly began adding employees when his projects shot from the $6 million range to more than $20 million within a few short years. Most of the company’s educational projects have been concentrated in Pinellas County, in Central Florida just off the Gulf of Mexico.

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“We designed a prototype elementary school in the early 1990s which we have renovated over 17 times,” Hoffman said. “It’s been a very successful project all around. We are constantly updating it, making new additions and renovations quite constantly.

“The design of the schools is sensitive to the scale of young students. Exits and entrances can be seen from the center of the school, creating a controlled and safe environment. The central area acts as

A.J. SANCHEZ A.J. Sanchez Consulting Engineers and Hoffman Architects have maintained a 20-year relationship that resulted in many successful projects including the most recent LEED Gold Certified Tarpon Springs Elementary School. A.J. Sanchez’s expertise is in the design of energy efficient HVAC systems, plumbing systems and fire suppression systems. For more information visit www.ajsce.com.

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a courtyard with boulevards intersecting throughout, which allows for a compact and efficient footprint. We just finished the renovations on my old grammar school, Tarpon Springs Elementary, which received a LEED Gold certification.�

Hoffman has been using components, such as floor-to-ceiling windows, that allow for the use of natural daylight. The firm has just completed the Palmetto Elementary School project in Manatee County, Fla. which was built to replace an existing school. The modern design features two-story buildings arranged around a secure central courtyard. They simplified many elements in the design and kept the scale suitable for small children.

Hoffman’s designs have earned many awards including the AIA Tampa Bay 2002 H. Dean Rowe, FAIA Award of Excellence for his work on the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art/M. M. Ben-

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PREVIOUS PAGE: Jacobson Culinary Arts Academy at Tarpon Springs High School, Tarpon Springs, FL. To carve out its own unique niche among Pinellas County high schools, Tarpon Springs High School several years ago embarked on an aggressive program to attract students interested in the culinary arts. The school has grown to more than 300 students and has become recognized as one of the premier high schools teaching restaurant science and the culinary arts. Tarpon Springs High School had set an ambitious goal to increase student enrollment in the Family and Consumer Science Department to 500 students to meet student demand and this would outstrip the capabilities of the existing, antiquated cafeteria used as a culinary facility, making the construction of a new, state-of-the-art Culinary Arts Academy a necessity. This academy would be able to reach beyond Tarpon Springs High School and service all students in Pinellas County. The facility is an 11,600 SF freestanding addition to the Tarpon Springs High School campus. The culinary school will maintain a 120 person dining room, a dining room kitchen, a kitchen and bakery, a 50 person Presentation/lecture room, and additional service spaces.

ABOVE: Hoffman Residence, Tarpon Springs, Fla. The major design influence on this house was bipolar on several levels, radically split between the architect and biologist, male and female, modern and traditional, husband and wife. The result is masculine concrete supporting a more feminine delicate vernacular wood and glass form within the trees.

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TOP LEFT & ABOVE: Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art/ M.M. Bennett Library/Ellis Foundation Art Education Center, St. Petersburg College, Tarpon Springs, Fla. Situated on a hillside overlooking a small reflecting lake to maximize community exposure, this 57,000 sq. ft. building welcomes both students and the general public. This two-story facility is composed of a museum, art studios, classrooms, an auditorium, and a campus library. The lower level of the facility acts as the service core of the building. In order to protect the works from the damaging Florida humidity, the receiving area serves as an “air lock.” The Main Gallery, with its low horizontal window, skillfully provides day lighting to the interior spaces without the risk of damage to the artworks.

The building’s dominant feature, a massive exposed concrete wall, links its remote location to the campus core while serving as the backbone of the building.

The overall construction budget was 9.2 million dollars.

Photos by George Cott.

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nett Library/Ellis Foundation Art Education Center project at St. Petersburg Community College.

The company also does many green building and preservation projects. It is now in the construction phase of renovating an old bank building in the City of Oldsmar. When finished, it will house the City Council Chamber, media offices, a community police office, the Historical Society and the Upper Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce. Hoffman is expecting it to have a LEED Gold certification.

“My work was a natural fit,” Hoffman said. “In Florida, it’s really important that everything we do has a sense of place.” ALT

LEFT: Generations Christian Church, Trinity, Fla. First Christian Church is a new facility for a relocating congregation. The church campus is a composition of various sample modern volumetric forms, utilizing patterned tilt-slab construction, grouped around a large stand of mature oaks. The buildings are comprised of a new worship center, multiple youth and student ministries, and a large central fellowship space with a coffee shop and bookstore. Photo courtesy of Generations Christian Church.

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