Testimonials

The quality of design consistently evident throughout Halflants + Pichette’s extensive body of work is truly outstanding. Clearly, his professional peers agree. Their projects have garnered 50 AIA design awards reflecting a success rate rarely achieved even by the most celebrated senior members of our profession. Their recent award of the AIA Florida Medal of Honor for Design puts a resounding exclamation point on that assessment. Three aspects of the work are particularly notable: sensitivity to its semi-tropical environment; creation of a sense of place even in the smallest stand-alone project; and the effective outcome of their early decision to pursue design/build as the project delivery path for the majority of the firm’s projects. The latter requires of a designer's dedication to close teamwork and mastery of material use and construction technology well beyond the norm. The evidence for this shows up clearly in the projects, backed up by planning ingenuity, spatial fluency, and structural daring.

No doubt Halflants + Pichette is one of the very best design firms in the region. This evaluation is based not only upon the representational drawings and models of their work but also on my personal visit to the Solstice House in Sarasota. This house presents their exceptional ability to interpret the conditions of the site in such a way that the house mediates between the land and the sea, and the land and the sky, while satisfying the programmatic needs as a residence. The firm’s recognition transcends the region and is emerging as a leader in the discipline of architecture. One way by which an architect may grow into a major world-renowned architect is to design a series of works that are rooted in the conditions specific to a region. The firm responds to the distinctive climatic conditions of Florida. In this context, I believe Professor Halflants created the Tropical Architecture course to deepen his own understanding of regional architecture in sub-tropical and tropical areas.

Ours was not a big job in terms of square feet or professional fees. However, John treated us as if we were clients on a multi-million dollar project. Modifying the predictable approach of an all-white modern space, he suggested that we paint the core of the unit a bold color. Most significantly, he didn’t push this idea but rather showed us examples of how it might look. Based on his low-key yet confident approach, we all agreed that gray-black was the way to go. This has turned out to be the definitive feature of our home. Once the renovation was underway, John was always accessible, responsive, and able to spend time with us as needed. In short, it was a pleasure to work with John and Halflants + Pichette, and we would be delighted to recommend him to our friends.

Michael Halflants and John Pichette draw upon precedents of significant modern icons of the Sarasota School and bring to the work a broader international sensibility. This can clearly be seen in the award-winning Solstice House. The ingenious use of the roof stair recalls the Casa Malaparte on the coast of Capri while the formal language of the house speaks directly to its Sarasota ancestors. I take particular pleasure in the reinvention of Malaparte’s stair as it doubles as a screen room for the client’s own films. The project deftly builds on the Sarasota traditions without mimicking the modern masters that came before, engaging the broader architectural discourse that transcends this region. I have no doubt that the work that comes out of this partnership will be of the highest quality.

What impresses me the most about Halflants & Pichette’s work, in general, is that it clearly builds upon the modern tradition without reducing it to a collection of tricks and signs. The Schrock House seems to pick up where Rudolph left off in 1960. It also synthesizes the architectural promenade of Le Corbusier, the inhabitable stepped roof of Libera’s Casa Malaparte, and numerous other lessons exhibited in early to mid-20th-century modern architecture. They are demonstrating an ability to interpret, transform, and assimilate that tradition into works that are unique to the particular situations presented to them. I am confident that the Schrock House is a tremendous promise of more excellent work to come.

As a tenured professor at the University of South Florida, Professor Halflants has established and led an award-winning architectural practice while maintaining a full-time teaching load, and conducting research in sustainable design and construction. His professional practice speaks for itself as evidenced by the continued critical support and acknowledgment of his peers. Indeed, the office has received an extraordinary number of design awards over the years including Firm of the Year. Halflants was one of a dozen recipients across the US of the 2012 Young Architects Award from AIA National. The work has been exhibited in various venues. He has been invited to speak about the work of the office at both national and international venues. Professor Halflants is recognized throughout Florida (and beyond) as an architect of exceptional talent, great rigor, and unapologetic passion. His projects engage their context through carefully choreographed spatial and material experiences. The work is uncompromisingly contemporary and forward-looking while aware of the recent history of modernism of the mid-century Sarasota School. I have long thought of his work as serving as the third generation of the Sarasota School, adapting to evolving social, material, programmatic, and technical challenges.

Halflants + Pichette’s design work is both strongly influenced by international modernism and profoundly rooted in the subtropical vernacular of South Florida with its courtyards and covered terraces, producing high-quality design work that is responsive to context, function, and programmatic constraints.

I have enjoyed and benefited from Michael Halflants’ passion and knowledge of architecture as a rigorous discipline, combining scholarly interests and knowledge of architecture with the technical and business knowledge of a practitioner. This is his strength, one that has enabled him to inspire and teach a generation of students. Michael carries on the best qualities of a modern architect, both regionally within the “Sarasota School” tradition, and as a critically engaged 21st-century architect, within a global culture of architecture. Perhaps most inspiring for me, in an age of digital media saturation, is the astute rigor and discipline that Halflants + Pichette achieves in its built work.

Michael Halflants has had a strong influence on his students through the many examples of design excellence exemplified throughout his work. His work shows the same care and dedication as his teaching and this has been borne out by the fact that a large number of his projects have been recipients of professional design awards. He serves as an excellent example of exactly what every member of our profession should aspire to achieve.

The discussion I had with John Pichette went something along the lines of, they, "as a team, go to each property to study the dynamics of the property: the sunlight, the shadows, the trees.....all the surrounding elements, and how the property breathes." With this in mind and while looking through their book, I could see the intricacies of which John was speaking. Each design came to life and my appreciation of modern architecture is vastly different and deeper than seeing... "just a white box." Working with Halflants + Pichette, I would beg to say, there are not two more tenacious and creative architects in the Sarasota area. They want your project. They want it to be more than just great. They want it to be exceptional. They want it breathtakingly beautiful...just as you do, too. And, it will be.

We've just moved into a condo in a building designed by this firm. If you appreciate good design and want to come home to a place that looks like 21st century urban Florida should, you might aspire to live in a building designed by this talented architecture firm. The buildings the firm has completed and those under construction in Sarasota's Rosemary District are, IMHO, architecturally significant and will become more so over time. They express a modernity that contributes to what makes Sarasota special. With roots in the classic mid-century Sarasota School, our new building is visually distinctive and positively contributes to the re-imagining of the Rosemary District.