• OFA's Annual Art Show Event Recap & Post-Event Survey
• David Adjaye & Winter Park Library
• Menello Museum
• Inside Voices | Black Thoughts Forum
• 32nd Annual Golf Tournament
• AAO Design Conference
• Membership Promotion
• Welcome New Members
• OFA's Architectural Guidebook 

The 2nd Annual OFA Art Show took place at the Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) November 3rd & 4th with great attendance and beautiful artwork. Nine pieces of artwork were sold with the majority of proceeds benefitting OFA’s programming such as 2021 Scholarships.

Our professional jury selected 1st. 2nd, and 3rd places as well as the Top Ten to be included with People’s Choice to be featured at OMA’s First Thursday event on November 5th. View the winners and Top Ten here.

Design architect of Winter Park’s new Library and Events Center, Sir David Adjaye was recently named the 2021 RIBA Royal Gold Medal recipient, making him the first Black architect to receive the honor. Given in recognition of a lifetime's work, the Royal Gold Medal is given to a person or group of people who have had a significant influence "either directly or indirectly on the advancement of architecture".

Sir David Adjaye, over the course of 25 years, has achieved international recognition and attention with a series of international, groundbreaking interventions, ranging from private houses, exhibitions, and furniture design, to major cultural buildings and city masterplans. Adjaye is well-known for the highly celebrated Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, in Washington, DC (2016).

The new Winter Park Library and Events Center is under construction and the city celebrated the raising of the final roofbeam at a Topping Out ceremony on Friday, October 30.

The ceremony marked the completion of the skeleton of the new building and was attended digitally by design architect Sir David Adjaye.

The 50,000 SF library was approved in 2016 with a $42 million budget. The new Winter Park Library and Events Center is expected to open in the fall of 2021. Once completed, the new venue will host a grand ballroom for groups of up to 500 people, a rooftop terrace, an outdoor amphitheater, a covered porte cochere, and special event spaces available for rent. Read more about the project on the City of Winter Park’s website.

You can stop by the Mennello Museum and see the engaging model of the architect’s vision. You can even recognize the sculptures that currently surround the museum out on the lawn, recreated in miniature in the model. This model, being of an art museum, is of sophisticated neutral tones with color highlights only for the warm wood accent walls at some window recesses. The model itself a work of art. 

The museum expansion is designed by Brooks + Scarpa, which has offices in Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles, and Orlando-based KMF Architects. The new design will envelop the current building.

Here is a link to a wonderful article by Matthew Palm in the Orlando Sentinel, talking with the museum’s Executive Director Shannon Fitzgerald. It has a video and more illustrations of the proposed design and details

BAM (Black Architects in the Making) Miami, in collaboration with BAM Orlando, a committee of OFA, is hosting the next "season" of the Inside Voices | Black Thoughts forum series on December 11th at 7pm.

Central and South Florida is known as a melting pot of people from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Yet, identity is still an issue we tend to shy away from in our everyday conversations. Join us in a discussion about identity, its impact on the profession, and why it is essential to be “Down For The Count.”

Mark your calendars, registration will be available soon!

AIA Orlando, with The Orlando Foundation for Architecture, is hosting its 32nd Annual Golf Tournament on February 19, 2021 from 6:30am-1pm at the Rio Pinar Country Club.

Join Central Florida’s top architectural design professionals and allies and help raise money for architectural scholarships. This year, we are taking a trip “Around The World”. So dress up like someone from your favorite country, get ready for a fun journey to everywhere we couldn’t go in 2020, and help us raise funds for students of Central Florida's 2+2+2 Program.

Sponsorship opportunities are available now! Click here to learn more, register, or sponsor.

The Association of Architecture Organizations (AAO) presents the Design Matters Conference - the only annual gathering specifically for organizations devoted to inspiring public dialogue about architecture and urbanism - gives attendees an expanded set of ideas and professional contacts in order to better contextualize their work in this new world. The event takes place December 3rd & 4th.

Now through the end of the year, OFA is offering a membership promotion: purchase your 2021 membership and receive the rest of 2020 included!

OFA Members receive discounted access to events and programming, a listing on our website, volunteer opportunities to benefit our local communities, and more.

Learn more about becoming a member here.

Pre-order your copy of The Architectural Guide to Central Florida- the first available guide to offer visitors and natives alike an overview of outstanding buildings spanning nearly a century and a half of growth in Central Florida.

With dramatic color photography, the guidebook introduces the major cities from Daytona to Lake Wales, and architects who have shaped the communities, including Murry S. King, James Gamble Rogers II, Nils M. Schweizer and Gene Leedy, with essays by ten knowledgeable experts.