Culture is an underrated currency when it comes to measuring the value of a city.  For as much money can be spent per capita, for however high property taxes may be on the next high-rise, there is something innately relatable about a place that exudes a specific culture and character. That’s why when revitalizing the iconic Sarasota Bath & Racquet Club, Michael Halflants, Design Principal of Halflants + Pichette, took extreme care. The former Bath & Racquet Club, founded in 1969, brought professional tennis to Sarasota throughout the 1970s and helped establish a culture of tennis in the area. Now, the 13.42 acre south Sarasota site is undergoing a transformation into the Bath & Racquet Residences and Club, a residential and recreational development where Sarasotans can live, work and play in one space. Tucked between a single-family neighborhood and Tamiami Trail, the complex will feature 256 luxury condominium units across four separate buildings, along with 13 outdoor tennis courts, 16 pickleball courts, a gym/wellness center, two-acre park and a strip of commercial space bordering the buildings. Everything in the complex was designed to make residential and recreational life seamless—the residential units, which sit 25 feet above sea level, are built above parking lots, separated by a 14-inch slab of concrete.  A pedestrian pathway links the complex to the surrounding neighborhood and elevated courtyards provide plenty of light and shared space to residents. “If you’re creating a live, work, play neighborhood, you want to make sure that it’s easy to go from the live to the play,” says Halflants. “What’s great about this is that if you come down from any of the units, you never have to cross another parked car to get to the tennis courts. We created the pedestrian connection, a one kilometer loop around the property, so that the 500-plus houses in the neighborhood could walk, bike or run to the public park in the complex.” The residential buildings were created to give occupants the conveniences of suburban living—private outdoor spaces, easily accessible parking—with the upsides of an urban environment. “The way we designed this, it’s really about how do you live inside? How do you step outside? How do you meet your neighbors, how do you get to the tennis courts?” says Halflants. “There’s a certain pleasure in living in places where other people are around you. A project like this that fits in Florida—it provides plenty of shade, it provides outdoor spaces and more breathing room than you’d have in dense cities—but also that proximity to others, definitely excites me.” Although everything about the project is rooted in contemporary design, Halflants wanted to ensure that the spirit of the original Bath & Racquet Club could be felt in the new development. There is a history to the site as a bastion of community sport, a place where children fell in love with tennis and people came to be together. Halflants himself remembers sending his children to summer camps at the Bath & Racquet Club. “Our goal was first for the residents to have great amenities, but also for the club to work,” says Halflants. “The club is not going to work with just the residents on site, it needs the rest of the city—those who can walk or bike to it are obvious choices, but if somebody comes from a different neighborhood, they’ll have a place to park underneath the grounds as well.”