Heritage Award Spotlight: Denise Kowal
- sahpmailbox
- Oct 10
- 7 min read
Historic Preservation Award: Herald Square Building
By Lauren Lucido
The Heritage Awards celebrate the best preservation work in Sarasota County by spotlighting the individuals, projects, and organizations that protect and enrich our understanding of the past to shape our future. This month, I sat down with 2025 Heritage Award recipient Denise Kowal, whose passion for preservation and dedication to her community are inspiring reminders of why this work matters. Denise received the Historic Preservation Award for her extraordinary efforts in restoring and preserving the historic Herald Square Building in Sarasota.
After knowing Denise for just a few minutes, it was no surprise that she was so involved in the restoration and preservation of her building. Right away I sensed that Denise is a creative, so it made sense when she told me she’s an artist from a whole family of artists. Denise purchased the building in 1986 when she was in her 20s, and has renovated it four times. The most recent renovations done in 2023-2024 are what earned her this award.
The Herald Square Building, originally designed in the 1920s by renowned architect Dwight James Baum, has long stood as a cornerstone near Sarasota’s historic Burns Court district. You may not know it by name, but if you’re familiar with downtown Sarasota you’ll know it for sure. It’s the building right where Orange Ave and Pineapple Ave meet, with a lovely fountain at the peak. You’ve probably popped in one of the multiple shops and businesses—including a restaurant aptly named The Fountain. I’ve walked or driven by it hundreds of times in the few years I’ve lived here. When Denise told me the building is shaped like a boat, I realized she’s right.
Curious, I asked Denise what the building was originally, and she told me, “It was a small hotel, and it was considered the gateway from the south. The south was where all the really wealthy neighborhoods were, and it was considered to be your gateway entering into Sarasota.”
She continued, “The architect who designed it, Dwight Baum, is the one who did the Ca’ d’Zan for the Ringlings. This was designed to be the first downtown core property as you enter the city from the south.”
The Herald Square Building has two sections built at different periods: the 1920s original structure, and the 1950s Paul Rudolph addition which is part of the Sarasota School of Architecture.
Today the first floor of the building hosts an array of local businesses and shops. The second floor of the 1920s section is Denise’s private residence. The second floor of the 1950s section is Burns Square Boutique Hotel, a 9-unit hotel run by Denise. The units are former apartments that have been converted into studios that sleep up to 2 guests, or suites and lofts that sleep up to 4 guests. Each unit is unique in layout and furnishings, and is uniquely named — Pineapple Suite, Laurel Loft, Orchid Studio to name a few.
Saying that Denise has taken a hands-on approach to preserving her building is both literally accurate and a serious understatement.
Denise, along with her partner Bill, removed layers of non-original stucco and hand painted the entire building using lime paint — often called limewashing — to restore the original facade. Limewashing is a technique that uses an all-natural, breathable coating of calcium hydroxide and water. This process protects buildings from mold and moisture by allowing them to breathe. The application is flexible and forgiving, with multiple coats creating layers of color and texture that naturally age and wear over time, making it ideal for historic buildings. Denise used 16 different colors on the building, with slightly darker shades at the bottom, medium shades in the middle, and lightest shades at the top. They painted at night, and the process took months. Wow.
Denise and Bill also hand-glazed all 264 historic steel frame windows. They preserved the original windows and replaced over 100 panes of glass, stripped the windows, and reglazed them. Wow again.
I was stunned to learn that up until this recent renovation, the building had the original roof from the 1920s. Denise told me, “The roof was original — 100% original tiles. They were all handmade by putting the clay on somebody's legs, and they would hand rake them with reeds. So they weren't all perfect. They're beautiful, all kinds of different variations of colors. So it took me a long time to decide to replace it, but it got to a point I had to.”
Denise finally replaced the original roof when it was about 100 years old. There were too many areas that had leaks, and the repairs just weren't working anymore. She carefully sourced and selected hand-raked terracotta tiles to match the original roof materials.
The roof replacement is actually what led to the facade and window restorations…because contractor issues had stalled the roofing project while the scaffolding was already up. Denise figured she should take advantage of having the scaffolding there, and decided to take on the exterior paint and window projects. She told me the scaffolding was originally supposed to be up for 6-8 weeks, and it ended up being up for almost 7 months.
The roof project was a challenge in many ways. Denise revealed the hardest decision she ever had to make on the building was the roof. She was insistent that the new roof maintain the building’s historical integrity, and she took time and care to select the authentic tiles and application method of having mortar visible between the tiles. She told me she returned home after being gone for 2 days to find a section of the roof had been completed…without her specified mortar method. Denise told me she had a very hard time getting the roofers to listen to her, and she was up on the roof all the time with them to ensure the project was being done correctly. She said, “The biggest thing I would say is that you have to be super hands-on. I was on that roof with them all the time. And you have to do your research and you have to pull people in, like me or other people that just know what they're looking at. Because if I ever left that job to them, without me being up there all the time, there are so many mistakes that would have been made and it just wouldn't turn out historically the same. It just wouldn't. So you have to be hands on.”
She added, “Don't ever let somebody do work and not be involved in what they're doing. Pay attention. Pay attention to what's going on, what they're doing. Because even simple things like when they're running pipes, make sure you're watching where they're running the pipes. Make sure they do it in a way that makes sense, that they're just not like running it across your attic where you're gonna step on it later.”
Along with the roof, Denise added copper gutters to be historically authentic. She told me they had fun with the project, and added decorative stenciling at the rim of the building, and a few fun splash guards — a ship and whales I’d never noticed until Denise pointed them out to me.
Denise shared with me that her taste and style has evolved and changed over the years, which is understandable of course. She removed various decorative elements she’d added previously — including foam detailing she called “goofy” and a decorative cupola she added in the 1980s. She said, “I'm now in my 60s. In my 20s when I first bought it, I went along with what an architect suggested. And now after I've traveled a lot and been to India and Europe and all these other countries and seen different architecture and studied architecture, now, that's when I started stripping my building of all the stuff that I put on it in the 80s. Because that's all kind of goofy stuff. I don't want that on it. I want it back more to its original. You know, I don't think I could ever put tattoos on my body because I think I change too much.”
When I asked Denise about the work, she said, “I mean, you're always renovating, right? You own a historic building, you're always renovating.” As an owner of a historic home, I feel this all too well. I actually think every homeowner of any age property can relate. She continued, “Historic buildings, I find it's Iike…a passion. It's an art project. It's, you know, it's exciting. Even though a lot of stuff is annoying when you have to replace pipes and boring things like that, it's still really exciting to discover how it's built.”
Denise owns other properties, which are also historic — a cabin in North Carolina and an apartment in Italy. She shared, “For me, purchasing a historic property is a creative outlet. So I would say I think anybody that purchases a historic property probably has a little bit of that in them anyway. I mean, you're up for an adventure. You are willing to probably be somebody that takes some risks and likes a little bit of the unknown and the fantasy of, you know, what things can be. So I think you're probably a more playful, more creative person to begin with. I mean, because, you know, a historic property is an adventure. It's an exciting adventure. So I would recommend it all day long. The biggest thing that I would say is difficult for me is that you just wish you had endless pockets.” Ah, I hear that!
It’s always inspiring to hear from people who care so deeply about Sarasota’s heritage and sense of place. Denise Kowal clearly embodies SAHP’s mission “to presence and enhance our historic places.” Thank you Denise, for sharing your story and reminding us that every effort—big or small—helps keep the beauty and character of our community alive for generations to come.
Photos courtesy of the author Lauren Lucido, and Denise Kowal.
