Florida

As a major cruise ship port, Port Canaveral has envisioned a newly redeveloped, visitor oriented waterfront for decades. Port Canaveral has many people coming and going, who would be well served with additional amenities and places to stay before their cruise. Concept focuses the mass and energy of the project around a large open park and the strong linear promenade on the waterfront. The inclusion of an Information Center and museum, as well as a large open-air amphitheater provide additional attractions for tourists and locals alike.

Architectural design services were provided for Thornton Park Central, a self-contained living/working environment. The multi-use project includes 20,000 SF of retail space, features a sidewalk café with patio seating, and four levels of residential condos above the street level shops. The 328-car parking garage is tucked behind the street-front shops and condos, providing availability for tenants and guests. The project’s north wing hosts 40,000 SF of commercial office space within five floors, and features scenic views to historic Lake Eola and the downtown Orlando skyline.

Built on the former site of historic Cypress Gardens, Florida’s first theme park, the team melded the Owner’s vision of the LEGOLAND brand with the valuable assets of the site’s history. The design team scrutinized the viability of existing structures and every tree on the 150‑acre site. Throughout design the park’s majestic and historic canopy was protected. Over 80 percent of the existing canopy was preserved in place, and 20 large specimen trees were relocated by crane to strategic locations within the property.

At the University of Central Florida’s Knights Plaza, Huitt-Zollars’ bold vision reinvented the existing plaza by giving it a new modern aesthetic, a sense of place, and more appropriately scaled spaces. The design broke the previous plaza down into three distinct outdoor “rooms,” providing needed spatial definition, shade, and seating options. This dynamic solution maintains a central events space, bound by alleys of date palms, plants, and fountains, creating shaded seating options in the new interstitial spaces between the larger rooms.

NAVFAC, Southeast awarded Satterfield & Pontikes Construction Inc. of San Antonio, Texas, a Design-Build contract in the amount of $22,540,000 for the design and construction of the Combat Systems Officer Bachelor Housing project located at Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida. Huitt-Zollars provided architectural, civil engineering, structural engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, plumbing engineering design and construction administration services for the 202-unit facility.