Seaside, Florida

This pavilion is intended to serve as the gateway to the beach from the town center and an icon for the town. It is set on a bluff 20′ above the beach overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. The tower is designed to mark a point along the beach and to provide full accessibility by way of its monumental stair and switchback ramp. It possesses a unique spatial quality that transforms its elemental expression and monumental scale. From the distance, one reads a monolithic form. As one enters the tower, its solidity melts away and is replaced by a feeling of lightness and shade. At night, internal lighting renders the tower’s skin transparent, causing a radical transition in its formal dynamic as day turns to night and night to day.