Winter Park, Florida

Winter Park is a suburban city in Orange County, Florida. The population was 27,852 at the 2010 United States Census. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Within the city are Rollins College, Full Sail University, and the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, which houses the world's most comprehensive collection of Tiffany glass. Winter Park features open park space, residential neighborhoods, golf courses, and a street-side shopping district along Park Avenue.

Winter Park was founded as a resort community by northern business magnates in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its main street includes civic buildings, retail, art galleries, a private liberal arts college, museums, a park, a train station, a golf course country club, a historic cemetery, and a beach and boat launch.

History

The Winter Park area's first human residents were migrant Muscogee people who had earlier intermingled with the Choctaw and other indigenous people. In a process of ethnogenesis, the Native Americans formed a new culture which they called "Seminole", a derivative of the Mvskoke' (a Creek language) word simano-li, an adaptation of the Spanish cimarrón which means "wild" (in their case, "wild men"), or "runaway" [men]. The site was first inhabited by Europeans in 1858, when David Mizell Jr. bought an 8-acre (32,000 m²) homestead between Lakes Virginia, Mizell, and Berry. A settlement, called Lake View by the inhabitants, grew up around Mizell's plot. It got a post office and a new name—Osceola—in 1870.

Winter Park

Winter Park may refer to:

Winter Park station

Winter Park is a train station in Winter Park, Florida. It is served by SunRail, the commuter rail system of Greater Orlando, and Amtrak, the national passenger rail system of the United States. The current station was built in 2014, replacing earlier stations going back to 1890.

History

The original Winter Park depot was built in 1890 by the South Florida Railroad ten years after it built a line from Sanford to Orlando. A newer passenger station was built in 1913 by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL) and included a freight depot, which is located to the south of the current station. The freight depot was in use by the railroad until 1982 when it was purchased by the city. It is now used as a farmer's market and as a venue for weddings and other special events. A newer modern station was built by the ACL in 1962 directly adjacent to a large city park known as Central Park. It was located one block away from Park Avenue, a street that is lined with upscale boutiques and restaurants.

Winter Park cluster housing

Winter Park was designed by award winning architect Graeme Gunn and developed by both Rob White and Merchant designers. It is located at 131-147 High Street, Doncaster, Victoria and is in 2.43 hectares in size. The design consists of twenty detached houses and was constructed in two stages between 1970 and 1974. Gunn’s residential project is described as “an outstanding example of careful design extended into a consideration of the importance of landscape and open space and, ultimately, the presence and feel of a place”.

Design approach

Architect's intent

Winter Park is a carefully planned development in which group of houses are sited to optimize available land in more efficient and environmentally sensitive method than that provided by the normal rectangular grid lot suburban subdivision. The project was built in two stages due to a capital cost and excess land was combined to provide communal open space. Houses are sited to relate with each other, to optimize privacy, solar orientation, views and physical conditions. Winter Park compromises of four groups of five houses that are located around communal car and pedestrian access ways, and each dwelling has a private garden in addition to a large central communal recreation space. The central idea was the free sitting of houses, private garden and communal open space to achieve an integration of the built environment within the most efficient use of land.