Streamsong Resort

Nestled in the Bone Valley, the 16,000 acre property includes a 316,000-square-foot lodge, 42,000-square-foot golf clubhouse, four restaurants, spa, and conference center. Along with the two buildings, lead architect Alberto Alfonso, AIA, designed custom lighting, furnishings, spa products, staff uniforms, and signage. The resort, located between Tampa and Orlando is situated on formerly mined phosphate land owned and developed by The Mosaic Company, the world’s leading producer of crop nutrients. Both the golf clubhouse and lodge have won 2014 Florida AIA Design Awards of Excellence.

Alfonso designed a vertical building strategy for the lodge grounded in the pre-historic terrain. Four zones – Submersion (AquaPietra spa, Breezeway, SottoTerra fine dining), Bank (public spaces and the Leaf lobby), Canopy (216 guest rooms with custom floor to ceiling wood louvers, furnishings, paintings, bookshelves), and Sky (Fragmentary Blue rooftop lounge inspired by the Robert Frost poem) – represent a natural correlation to the unique characteristics of landscape and climate.

The history, geology, foliage and celestial sky influenced material palettes, textures, and colors. Limestone, cedar, cherry, teak, and walnut were used as warm natural extensions of the land. Hand crafted mosaics, Venetian plaster, and cast in place architectural concrete produce surface texture. Alfonso, an exhibiting artist, created a series of abstract paintings, murals, engravings, and sculpture that enliven Streamsong with fine art.

“Streamsong is a celebration of reclamation, of both land and spirit. Since the mining has stopped, nature has taken over and provided us with the perfect inspiration,” says Alfonso. “Enormous grass dunes, our brilliant Florida light, water bodies stretching to the horizon teeming with fish and wildlife, a fertile and varied landscape, are all reflected in the design consciousness of Streamsong. The rooftop veranda offers a limitless view of our Florida sunsets and embraces the clear rural night sky.”