Architect Tim Seibert left imprint on Longboat Key, Sarasota

The way Sam Holladay tells it, there was a point in the 1980s that Longboat Key building officials were sure Tim Seibert had a hand in about 80% of the development projects on the island. 

Holladay, the firm principal of Seibert Architects in Sarasota, said his design influence began years earlier, though. In 1956, Herb Field bought property to the north of The Colony and hired Siebert to design the Far Horizons, Ralph Hunter wrote in “Calusas to Condominiums.”

Edward J. “Tim” Seibert, a Sarasota School architect and founder of Seibert Architecture, died Sunday, Dec. 2. He was 91.

Examples of Seibert’s work can still be seen on Longboat Key, whether it’s at Avenue of the Flowers, Beachplace Condominiums or Bayport Beach and Tennis Club.

“I think his architecture speaks for itself, for his legacy,” Holladay said. “...He was just a great intellectual and just a talented architect and he made a lot of friends with his clients. He enjoyed that.”

Holladay said his own architecture ca

reer formed around Seibert, who gave him the the chance to work on development projects. Holladay said Seibert was a naturally good designer who was exposed to some good critics such as Paul Rudolph, who designed the Umbrella House, and Philip Hiss.

Throughout his esteemed career, Seibert racked up accolades such as being named a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and winning the AIA Test of Time award multiple times, including his work on the MacDonald House on Siesta Key, the Cooney House on St. Armands Key and Bayport Beach and Tennis Club on Longboat Key.

Locally, he was given AJC’s Civic Achievement Award in 2006 and in 2017, the Sarasota Architecture Foundation honored Seibert with the Art + Architecture Lifetime Achievement Award at its Sarasota MOD Weekend.

Seibert’s start in architecture came early with influence from his father. Edward C. Seibert was an engineer in the U.S. Navy and designed large bases. Tim Seibert started drafting and designing before he began doing draft work for builders in college. In 1955, he opened his first office.

What continued was a nearly 40-year career.

“Well, he knew how to work with developers and clients and he always listened to his client’s desires and tried to do a project that worked for them that was good architecture,” Seibert’s wife Lynne said of her husband’s success.

When Seibert retired in 1994, he and Lynne moved to Boca Grande where he not only worked to preserve the character and scale of Boca Grande and served on the historic preservation board, but he also took up sailing and yacht design, for which he did all the calculations by hand with a number 2 pencil.

A sailor himself, who sailed San Francisco Bay and Hawaii as a child and Sarasota Bay as an adult, Seibert’s designs earned him three more awards from the Classic Boat Magazine.

Seibert is survived by his wife, Lynne; daughter, Pandora Seibert; stepson Aaron Hanretta and his wife, Kelly; and granddaughter Emlyn.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Sarasota Architectural Foundation, the Suncoast Humane Society or The Boca Grande Health Clinic Foundation.