Architecture Sarasota’s newly appointed President, Morris (Marty) Hylton III, will join Toshiko Mori in a public conversation about her practice before honoring her that evening at an award ceremony and benefit gala — Architecture Sarasota's largest annual fundraising event.

About the Philip Hanson Hiss Award:

The Philip Hanson Hiss Award was established to honor today’s pioneers of innovative design within the built environment, and to celebrate the contributions of Philip Hanson Hiss III (1910-1988), the primary catalyst, impresario and promoter of the Sarasota School of Architecture — a modern architecture movement that addressed the distinct geographic, climatic, and socio-cultural context of South Florida’s Gulf Coast region.

About Toshiko Mori:

Throughout her nearly four-decade long career Mori has established herself as a leader of contemporary architectural thought through a practice characterized by site-specificity and innovation, both in material and design, solving the unique sets of challenges presented by a given landscape. Born in Kobe, Japan, and educated at the Cooper Union in New York, Mori is also a distinguished educator — in 1995, she became the first woman to receive tenure at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. This facet of her career is also reflected in her architectural practice, with the buildings of many educational and public institutions — from the Fass School and Teachers’ Residence in Senegal to the Brooklyn Public Library. Having described herself as being engaged in a game of chess with the great names of American Modernism, including members of the Sarasota School, she has upheld the intellectual underpinnings of the movement. This is exemplified in the restoration projects in her portfolio, notably including the addition of two pavilions to the Rudolph-designed Burkhardt-Cohen House property, just outside of Sarasota, which will be discussed during the conversation between Mori and Hylton.