Frank Folsom Smith

Frank Folsom Smith, June 21, 1931-March 25, 2025.

Frank Folsom Smith was an influential member of the Sarasota School of Architecture and the lead architect for Sarasota’s landmark Plymouth Harbor retirement community. During his more than six-decade career, he designed homes, churches, commercial buildings and communities here and throughout the country. He was a founding member of the Congress for the New Urbanism, and through his commitment to progressive urban design and development laid the foundation for today’s vibrant downtown. Smith grew up in Virginia Beach, Va., and graduated from the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture in 1959. During a Florida vacation while he was still in school, he fell in love with Sarasota’s natural beauty, artistic energy and modern edge. He went on to work with Victor Lundy, one of a group of young architects who were developing a style of modern regional architecture that would later be known as the Sarasota School. He also worked with architect William Zimmerman and designed his first significant project, the Weaver House on Longboat Key, before opening his own architectural practice, The Folsom Group, in 1960. One of his early commissions was designing the fellowship hall for the First Congregational Church, where he worked with the Reverend Dr. John Whitney McNeil, an energetic visionary. McNeil dreamed of building a new kind of retirement community; and he and Smith had long conversations about the social isolation and facelessness of most retirement communities, which featured solitary apartments along long, dark corridors. McNeil soon realized that young Smith would be the perfect architect for his project. The result was a revolutionary structure, 25 stories tall, designed around a series of interior “colonies” that drew residents together and created a sense of belonging and community. Plymouth Harbor opened in 1966; and in 1991, it won the prestigious “Test of Time” award from the American Institute of Architects. Smith’s buildings defined the look of late 20th century Sarasota, from The Terrace condominium on Siesta Key to the renovation of downtown’s United States Garage and surrounding Burns Court area. His Sandy Cove development on Siesta Key, which featured cluster housing on a Gulf-front site, won national attention, including in a 1971 cover story for Southern Living Magazine, for its innovative design and preservation of natural features and vistas. He also had a home in Charlottesville, Va., for many years, and developed residential and mixed-use communities there, including downtown’s McGuffey Hill. He also designed private residences in other areas of Florida and California. Smith embraced New Urbanism, with its focus on walkability, sustainability and human interaction, and was a leader in 1983’s R/UDAT, a design conference featuring national experts that helped shape downtown Sarasota’s growth. He led the revision of New College’s Master Plan in 1995. Whatever the project, Smith brought to it his passion for creating buildings and communities that were sustainable, rich in natural beauty, and advanced the quality of life and social connections of those who lived and worked there. A man of great integrity and character, he was a searcher and thinker, with enormous curiosity and zest for life. Tall, charismatic and charming, he had a wide circle of friends, including prominent international urban planners and architects. His friends soon discovered that beneath the courtly manners of a Virginia gentleman lay a mischievous sense of humor and quick wit. His memory was legendary: even in his last days he could recall exact dates, names and experiences from every decade of his life. He loved new adventures, beautiful cars, nature, golf, travel, the University of Virginia, strong coffee, porches, and long conversations with his friends. Most of all, he loved his family and his wife, Anne, a Sarasota interior designer. The two met in 1981, married in 1982, and were inseparable ever since. In 1983, they bought an 1894-era farmhouse on Sarasota Bay and lovingly renovated it. They named it Ventana (“window” in Spanish) and it became a cherished gathering place for family and friends.

Smith is survived by his wife Anne Folsom Smith; daughter Frances Dorrien-Smith (James Dorrien-Smith) of London, England; son William N. A. Smith (Amy Smith) of Richmond, Va., nine grandchildren: Patrick, Amanda, Kelsey, Eric, Eleanor, William, Erika, Summer, Annabel; and 12 great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his daughter Laura.

A celebration of Frank Folsom Smith’s life will be held in Sarasota on May 23 at 1:30 p.m at the Church of the Palms on Bee Ridge Road.