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Short Takes

Museums & Attractions

  • Closed for nearly a decade, the Villa Zorayda, or Zorayda Castle, in St. Augustine, Fla., is scheduled to reopen to visitors early this year. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Villa Zorayda was built in 1883 as the winter home of Boston millionaire Franklin Smith. Designed as an exact copy of a portion of the Alhambra castle in Granada, Spain, the building served as a casino in the 1920s and as a movie location. Today, its interior houses a collection of art, including furniture carved from tropical hardwoods, treasures from the Middle East and Egypt, and sculptures and artifacts from the villa’s past, including a more than 2,000-year-old carpet made of cat hair. For more information, call the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce at 904.829.5681 or visit www.staugustinechamber.com.

  • Florida’s Tampa Museum of Art demolished its former museum site in February and is working with Florida-based artist Rocky Bridges to salvage materials from the demolition site to create a work of art for the new museum. The site for the new museum is located in Curtis Hixon Park, overlooking the Hillsborough River in downtown Tampa. The new museum will measure approximately 66,000 square feet and will be designed by San Francisco architect Stanley Saitowitz. The opening of the new museum is slated for fall 2009. For more information, call 813.274.8130 or visit www.tampamuseum.com.

Kudos
  • Three Benchmark Hospitality International properties in Virginia were presented with the Virginia Green Lodging Certificate of Environmental Commitment by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality: Virginia Beach’s The Founders Inn and Spa, Richmond’s Virginia Crossings Resort and Lansdowne Resort, located near Leesburg. In addition to receiving the Green Lodging Certificate, Virginia Crossings Resort was presented with the Clean Business Award, given each year to local businesses that demonstrate excellence in landscaping management, waste management and recycling. The Virginia Green Lodging Program is an initiative of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to advance pollution prevention methods in the tourism and hospitality industry. For more information, call Benchmark Hospitality at 281.367.5757, visit www.benchmarkhospitality.com, or visit the Virginia DEQ website: www.deq.virginia.gov.