Sarasota County’s Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources (PRNR) Department has a new home. The department’s Administration Building at Twin Lakes Park opened for full operations on March 2, 2026, and was formally celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 9, 2026.

Located at 5883 Hummingbird Avenue on the western side of the Twin Lakes Park complex in Sarasota, the project brings together two new structures. The Administration Building offers 12,500 square feet of general office space for PRNR administrative staff, consolidating the department’s Parks, Programming and Stewardship, Business Operations, and Park Development teams under one roof. Alongside it, a 5,500-square-foot Multi-Purpose Building houses two large meeting rooms with supporting facilities, as well as public restrooms serving the adjacent athletic fields and courts.

Designed by Sweet Sparkman Architects and built by Jon F. Swift Construction, the facility was shaped by a simple but ambitious idea: a building for the county’s parks department should reflect the same care, energy, and sense of place that the parks themselves bring to the community. Rather than a purely functional office, the design aims to delight and engage the people who use it, to respect its park and neighborhood setting, and to foster a pride of ownership that is emblematic of the county’s parks and natural lands.

That spirit is evident throughout the interior. Bold, colorful signage, including oversized letters spelling out “PARKS,” an “It Starts in Parks” display wall, and vibrant green accent walls give the workplace a distinctly welcoming personality. The result is a professional environment that still feels playful and human, in keeping with the department’s role in the daily lives of county residents.

Sustainability was a defining requirement from the outset. The project was designed to achieve certification under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED v4 Building Design and Construction program and to meet the county’s 2030 Challenge energy goals, targeting fossil-fuel energy consumption well below the national average for comparable buildings. Rooftop solar panels, installed on both structures during construction, help power the campus, and the landscaping and site design follow Sarasota County’s green development and water-conservation standards. The building is also designed for the resilience expected of an essential public facility in coastal Florida.

The completed campus caps a multi-year effort funded through South County and North County Park Impact Fees, Surtax 4, and other county revenues. Construction ran from foundation work in early 2025 through structural steel, exterior panels, rooftop solar, and interior finishes, reaching full operation in March 2026.

For Sweet Sparkman, the work at Twin Lakes Park spans more than a decade. The firm also designed the adjacent Sarasota County Fire Station #16, completed in 2015, and carried a consistent design approach across both projects so the new Administration and Multi-Purpose buildings read as part of a cohesive campus rather than standalone additions. The result is a unified architectural language across the site, developed over thirteen years of work in the same location.