Storm-tested design shapes new Sanibel intern housing

SANIBEL, Fla. (WINK) — More than three years after Hurricane Ian destroyed intern housing on Sanibel, construction is now underway on a new facility designed with resiliency in mind.

The new La Gorce Family Intern Housing project will provide housing for interns working with several of Sanibel’s leading environmental organizations, including the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife and the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium.

The 7,700-square-foot facility is being built next to SCCF headquarters along what SCCF CEO James Evans calls the “Wild Mile” — a stretch of Sanibel-Captiva Road that also includes CROW and the Shell Museum. The new housing will include 30 beds for interns each summer.

The previous intern housing on the site consisted of two cottages with 16 beds that were donated to SCCF in 1988. Those buildings were destroyed when Hurricane Ian pushed nearly 12 feet of storm surge across parts of Sanibel in September 2022.

“We want to make sure these buildings can handle that storm surge and be functional afterwards,” Evans said.

That focus on long-term recovery and resilience played a major role in the design of the new buildings.

Elle Gerdeman with CO-G Architecture said the goal was not simply to resist storms, but to design structures that can better work with extreme weather conditions.

“To build in a way that these buildings will kind of last for a really long time, so we don’t have to keep going through these rebuilding events,” Gerdeman said.

The new facility includes several hurricane-resistant construction features, including hip roofs and elevated construction built five feet above FEMA flood elevation requirements. Designers also say the buildings are modular enough that damaged sections could potentially be replaced individually after future storms instead of requiring a complete rebuild.

“We have also learned a lot from Hurricane Ian and from the recent storms — which buildings are acting the best, which materials are working the best,” Gerdeman said.

Construction officially began May 4, and the La Gorce Family Intern Housing facility is expected to open in March 2027.