The St. Joe Company Announces the Longleaf Art Park at the Watersound Origins Community

The St. Joe Company (NYSE: JOE) (“St. Joe”) announces plans by the Berkowitz Contemporary Foundation, an arts-supporting non-profit organization, for the Longleaf Art Park at the Watersound Origins community. The park, which is currently under development off Origins Parkway, is planned for 15.5 acres and will be open to the public once complete. Day-to-day operations will be managed by the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County.

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Artist Rendering of Longleaf Art Park and the Passage of Time Pavilion. (Photo: Business Wire)

The planned park will be anchored by the Passage of Time Pavilion, which will house the late artist Richard Serra’s iconic work Passage of Time. The 217-foot long 540,000-pound sculpture constructed in the artist’s preferred medium features eight two-inch thick weathering steel plates measuring 13.5 feet in height displayed in a meandering parallel arrangement.

The planned Longleaf Art Park and the Passage of Time Pavilion have been designed by OLI Architecture in collaboration with Richard Serra. In order to create a destination that blends with its existing natural environment, emphasis has been placed on keeping all construction disturbances on the site to a minimum.

In addition to the Passage of Time Pavilion, the park will feature amenities including an outdoor event space that will host future programming opportunities. Meandering paths and boardwalks will lead visitors from a parking area through native landscape on a journey through carefully contoured berms surrounding a pond as they approach the Passage of Time Pavilion. The pavilion is designed to be entered from glass vestibules welcoming visitors to an intimate experience with the sculpture.

“The creation of the Longleaf Art Park marks the beginning of a new cultural era for Walton County and establishes the Northwest Florida region as a home and destination for artistic excellence,” said Jennifer Steele, Executive Director of the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County. “The importance of access to a piece of work as significant as Richard Serra’s Passage of Time cannot be overstated, and the impact it will have on our local artists, residents, students, and visitors will be limitless and lasting for generations.”

Plans call for the park to be open in 2026.

About The St. Joe Company

The St. Joe Company is a real estate development, asset management and operating company with real estate assets and operations in Northwest Florida. The Company intends to use existing assets for residential, hospitality and commercial ventures. St. Joe has significant residential and commercial land-use entitlements. The Company actively seeks higher and better uses for its real estate assets through a range of development activities. More information about the Company can be found on its website at www.joe.com.

About the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County

As the creative core of Walton County for more than three decades, the Cultural Arts Alliance (CAA) is a Local Arts Agency that fosters creativity through the inclusive and collaborative advancement of the Arts. Through support for the creative sector, the production of arts and educational programming, and advocacy efforts, the CAA provides opportunities for residents and visitors to experience diverse forms of art and learning, connecting them to a broader view, critical exploration, and answers only the Arts have the power to provide. The CAA envisions a thriving Walton County where everyone has access to arts and culture experiences. For more information, visit CulturalArtsAlliance.com.

About Richard Serra

Richard Serra (b. 1938) was an American artist known for his large-scale sculptures made for site-specific landscape, urban, and architectural settings. His work is admired for its powerful material quality and exploration of the relationship between the work, the viewer, and the site. Since his emergence in the mid-1960s, Serra has radicalized and extended the very definition of sculpture beginning with his early experiments with rubber, neon, and lead, and later, the large-scale steel works he is most known for. Serra was born in San Francisco, California. He obtained a BA in English Literature from the University of California, Santa Barbara. After graduating, Serra enrolled at Yale University, where he would obtain a Bachelors in Art History and a Masters of Fine Arts. His first US solo exhibition took place in 1968 at Leo Castelli Gallery in New York. The following year, Serra had his first museum show at the Pasadena Art Museum in California. He is considered to be one of the most significant artists from his generation. His works are in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Dia Center for the Arts, Beacon, New York; Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, St. Louis; Guggenheim Museum Bilbao; and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, among others.

About OLI Architecture

Founded by Hiroshi Okamoto and Bing Lin in 2010, OLI Architecture specializes in civic and cultural building design, museography, exhibition, education, healthcare, and custom residential design. Based in New York, with offices in Shanghai and Paris, the firm has extensive international experience, working in collaboration with various clients and municipalities, bringing their vision to fruition through singular architectural environments. Its award-winning projects range in both typology and scale, from the site-specific LX Pavilion, designed to house Richard Serra’s London Cross sculpture in New York; to Symphony Orthodontics, a private healthcare facility in Virginia, to the MuXin Art Museum in Jiaxing, China. With a vision towards the future, accompanied by a vast disciplinary understanding of the built environment, and respect of the specific cultural parameters of each project, OLI crafts unique buildings that meet the aspirations of clients, stakeholders, and the detailed requirements of the future occupants. Learn more at http://www.oliarch.com/en/home.

About the Berkowitz Contemporary Foundation

Berkowitz Contemporary Foundation (BCF) is a nonprofit arts organization that brings remarkable contemporary and modern art to the public. Founded in 2013, BCF emphasizes the exhibition of transformative, multidisciplinary artwork in communal spaces to create inspirational, informative, and inclusive cultural experiences. In addition to its programming, BCF contributes to other arts and culture organizations that align with its visions and aspirations.

©2024 The St Joe Company. “JOE^®”, “St. Joe^®”, the “Taking Flight Design^®”, “St. Joe (and Taking Flight Design)^®”, and “Watersound Origins^®” are registered service marks of The St. Joe Company or its affiliates.

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