1. William Morgan Architects
Information:
Educated at Harvard under Walter Gropius and Jose Luis Sert and trained in the
Cambridge office of Paul Rudolph,William Morgan was appointed a Lehman Fellow of
Harvard University and studied as a Fulbright grantee in Italy in 1958 and 1959.
Subsequently he received aWheelwright Fellowship of the Graduate School of Design,
and a Graham Foundation Grantee for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts for research.
Mr. Morgan is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a past chairman of
the AIA Committee on Design.
In 1961 Mr. Morgan established his architectural practice in Jacksonville, Florida.Well
known for excellence in architectural design, his works range from modest residences
to such major projects as the Florida State Museum of Natural History in Gainesville,
the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan; the U.S. Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale,
WestinghouseWorld Headquarters in Orlando, Pyramid Condominium in Ocean City,
Maryland; Bloomingdale's store in Miami and Neiman Marcus in Ft. Lauderdale. Often
published in the United States and abroad, numerous design awards have recognized
his work.
2. Over the years, Mr. Morgan has lectured and
served as a visiting critic at such architectural
schools as Harvard, Tulane, North Carolina State
University, and the University of Florida.
AppointedGibbons Eminent Scholar in
Architecture and Urban Planning in 1990, he also
has served as the Beinecke-Reeves Distinguished
Chair in Architectural Preservation at the
University of Florida. In 1998 the American
Institute of Architects conferred an Institute
Honor on Mr. Morgan in recognition of his lifelong
research into the beginnings of architectural
creativity.
3. Design philosophy:
For half a century, William Morgan has reigned as one of America’s most prolific
Modernist builders. It was fifty years ago, in 1960, when he first began his luminous
career as an architect; forging a framework of eco-modern sustainable living by
erecting sites respectful of the environment, also being elegant, accommodating
dwellings that are very forward thinking. His mostly projects are designed to
preserved the natural setting as a part of its therapeutic concept.
4. • Conners House, PonteVedra Beach.
• Edwards House, Atlantic Beach.
• Drysdale House, Atlantic Beach .
• Beach House, PonteVedra Beach.
• Hilltop House, Brooksville.
• Goodloe House, PonteVedra Beach.
• Cornelius House, Atlantic Beach.
• Blackburn House, Gainesville.
• Root House, Ormond Beach .
• Lagoon House, Jacksonville.
•William Morgan House, Atlantic Beach.
• Ocean Forest House, Atlantic Beach .
•Tree house, Atlantic Beach.
• Grandy House, Atlantic Beach.
• Sea Gardens, Atlantic Beach.
• Forest House, Gainesville.
• Dune House, Atlantic Beach.
•West-Hill House, Atlantic Beach.
• Dylan Morgan House, Atlantic Beach.
• Lankshear House, Atlantic Beach.
• Lott House, Amelia Island .
• Museum of Natural History, Gainesville.
• Interama Amphitheater, Miami.
• Pyramid Condominium, Ocean City,
Maryland.
• Gilldorn Savings, Pawnee and Mount
Zion, IL.
• Federal Courthouse and Offices, Ft.
Lauderdale.
• District Court of Appeal, Tallahassee.
• Central Park Offices, Stuart, Florida.
• Seaplace Apartments, Atlantic Beach.
•Westinghouse Headquarters, Orlando.
• Police Administration Building,
Jacksonville.
• Bloomingdale's at the Falls, Miami.
• Law Exchange Building, Jacksonville.
• State Offices in Parking Garage,
Jacksonville.
• Livery Stable Office Building, Jacksonville.
Residential Projects: Commercial Projects:
5. Hilltop house (Brooksville):
The Hilltop house, one of the Morgan’s
Great designs, epitomizes his intention to
Build with the earth, not on it,The
Essential attribute of his earth architecture.
This site is a hill located in central Florida,
2000 ft in diameter, rising 70 ft, the top of
Which the client chose as their favorite
picnic spot before the house was built.When
First seen from a great distance, the house
strikes at once natural and artificial, archaic and modern.The house draws the
Massive heaviness of the hill up into a pyramid form, its corners oriented to
cardinal points, and its spaces formed by earth retaining walls of geometric
precision.The rooms of house open in four directions, fronted by protected terraces
Cut into the ground, so that this most earth bound of houses is, paradoxically,
cross ventilated by all four winds.The upper level named as “The observatory”,
Is a single, central room, crowned by a pyramidal roof that brings the lines of the
house and hill to its peek, and from which one is afforded uninterrupted views of
The surrounding landscape.
6.
7. Pyramid Condominium:
Inspired by the natural forms of wind-sculpted
beach dunes, the initial design envisioned three
housing structures composed of folded vertical
slabs, towers towards the land, to he west, and
pyramidal masses stepping down to beach, to the
east.The original design also proposed a low
horizontal reaction deck to be placed parallel to
the access road, binding together the three
housing structures and creating a street edge. Only
one of the housing structures was
realized containing 171 one and two bed roomed apartments with the bedrooms on the
west, or land, side, and the living-dining spaces opening to the east or ocean side, each
provided with a spacious balcony.The ingenious plan involves interlocking the units
through small offsets in the parallel wall between, in such a way that each unit “borrows”
space from the balcony of one neighbor and from the bathroom corridor of the other in
order to create 16 ft wide living-dining room.
8.
9.
10. Law Exchange Building:
Sited downtown near the country
courthouse, jail and police building, this
design have three floors of professional
offices above two levels of parking, and
provides several critically important
amenities to both its occupants and the
citizens of the city. First is the manner in
Which the building holds and defines the street edge; second is the relatively low scale of
four to five stories; third is the provision of parking within the building; and fourth is the
manner in which the building structure cantilevers 6 ft to the east, not only significaly
increasing the space of the office floor but providing an overhang which covers he entire
public sidewalk, protecting it from both sun and rain.The building’s structure while
exceedingly rational and economical, also provides several design benefits.The parking
deck have sloped floors, eliminating the need for circulation ramps and maximizing the
number of parking spaces.