Julia Starr Sanford - Architectural Design & Concepting

Julia's focus for Blue Magnet Partners is architectural design and concepting services for select real estate development projects.

Julia S. Sanford is the founding principal of Starr Sanford Design Associates, a residential development firm based in Amelia Island and Rosemary Beach, FL. Ms. Sanford has been a designer for an extensive range of projects internationally including large-scale hotel, high rise office building, resort, medical facilities, retail and convention centers. Ms. Sanford has provided design and project management for historical renovations, showrooms, libraries, museums and private galleries. She has designed feature Film sets for Twentieth Century Fox, Universal, MGM and Walt Disney Pictures and was NBC's art director for the Today Show and 1996 Centennial Olympic Broadcast.

Starr Sanford Design Associates is directing the design and development of Sky, a 570 acre parcel located in Calhoun County, Florida. Julia Sanford has directed the design development of numerous projects nationally, planning design, implementation, construction, marketing and engineering, including Amelia Park, a DPZ development on Amelia Island, FL, and has directed the design and prototypical planning for Rosemary Beach and Draper Lake for Leucadia Financial Corporation. Ms. Sanford has led design and planning nationally including Alys Beach, East Bay and Edens Landing in Florida, and the Smith Morris District in Charleston, SC. Other projects include Hampstead in Montgomery, Lost Rabbit in Mississippi, South Main in Colorado and Alys Beach for EBSCO, International. She has participated internationally in architectural charrettes for Hacienda Lagunas in Panama and Schooner Bay and Albany Golf and Equestrian Resort in the Bahamas.

Starr Sanford Design Associates is focused on incorporating vernacular traditions with sustainable design and high performance building technologies. The practice was founded in 1996 with residential projects characterized by an interest in the regional traditions of the South as well as the Colonial architecture of the West Indies. Ms. Sanford was brought to Rosemary Beach and surrounding areas to help foster this interest and to illustrate the intent of various development codes. These homes are distinctive in their attention to historical proportion and detail.

Ms. Sanford has a Master of Architecture degree from Georgia Institute of Technology, where she was the recipient of Georgia Tech's prestigious SGF award, the Skidmore Owings and Merrill Portfolio Fellowship and the Governor's Honor for the state of Georgia. She received a Bachelor of Art in Art History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Master's Thesis from Harvard University. She has lived and traveled extensively in Europe while studying Italian Renaissance and Classical architecture and has traveled throughout the Caribbean and South America researching West Indian and Caribbean influences on the development of coastal vernacular in the United States. She is fluent in French and Italian and currently resides on Amelia Island, Florida.

EXPERIENCE: Skidmore Owings and Merrill - Scogin Elam and Bray - John Portman Associates - Nix Mann/Perkins and Will - Thompson Ventulett Stainback - NBC - MGM - Twentieth Century Fox -Universal Studios

RECENT PROJECTS: Rosemary Beach, FL, 18 custom residences - Alys Beach, FL - Arizona State University Library - NBC's Centennial Olympic Studio Set - Sports Illustrated Olympic Studio Set - Coca Cola European World Headquarters - International Sports Hall of Fame, Paris, France - Woodruff Arts Center Centennial Renovation, High Museum of Art, Atlanta - Pactel Headquarters, Pacific Telegraph & Telephone, San Francisco

AWARDS: Georgia Tech's prestigious SGF award - Skidmore Owings and Merrill Portfolio Fellowship - The Governor's Honor for the State of Georgia

It's quite obvious why Blue Magnet Partners is quite proud to be associated with Ms. Sanford