Rendering caption: Cedar Key Village elevation

In downtown Cedar Key, Florida, a development will create a new block of mixed-use buildings plus the restoration of adjacent historic buildings dating to the 1860s. The $25 million project is under construction and expected to be complete in late 2007. The design is a joint effort of Oscar Machado and Jaime Correa — both members of the architecture faculty at the University of Miami. Roy and Julie Norton of Suncoast Community Partners are the developers.
The project, called Cedar Key Village, will include a boutique hotel with 36 rooms and 24 courtyard apartments in vernacular architectural styles, in addition to shops and restaurants. The buildings, new and restored, will total nearly 99,000 square feet. The new buildings will have low-pitched metal roofs, vertically proportioned wooden windows, and a mix of wood and masonry construction. The project includes six new courtyards, four of them urban in character and two rural, the architects told New Urban News.
The project is at five feet of elevation, so the new buildings include a 15-foot ground floor for parking, as required by FEMA. Arts and crafts vendors will also make use of the ground floor. Habitable space starts at the second floor, 20 feet above sea level. Two rooftop pools are incorporated into the project, one a “Pompeian-style natatorium” with classical columns holding up an open-roofed temple structure.