Project Description↓

The Galloway’s Furniture Showroom in Sarasota, designed by Victor Lundy and opened in1959, is a landmark of the Sarasota School of Architecture. It originally featured a bold modernist design tailored to Florida’s Gulf Coast, with expansive glass walls, exposed “morning glory” wood framing, and a floating mezzanine. A renovation in the 1980s significantly altered its character, covering these defining features and obscuring the building’s original openness, materiality, and structural innovation.

Commissioned by a local museum, our team conducted an in-depth analysis of the building’s current condition to develop an exhibition that honors its legacy. This process involved site analysis, historical research, and architectural documentation. We examined the building’s orientation, material systems, and design evolution, paying special attention to structural innovations like the use of pre-engineered CLT (Cross-Laminated Timber) columns.

From our research, we produced a series of orthographic drawings, plans, sections, and diagrams that mapped circulation, structural systems, and spatial relationships. At the mezzanine level, we analyzed critical components such as steel brackets and visitor pathways. A sectional study emphasized the building’s transparency and the spatial interplay of light and shadow.

The center piece of the exhibition was a large-scale physical model that visualizes these relationships and allows for hands-on exploration. It was instrumental in studying how daylight filters through the structure and interacts with its geometry—an important factor in Lundy’s original design. Combined with diagrams and renderings, the model offers a multi-sensory experience that engages visitors in both the history and future restoration of this architectural gem.

The exhibition ultimately serves to celebrate Galloway’s legacy and promote public awareness of its architectural significance, using a blend of technical analysis and visual storytelling to support preservation efforts.